E-Course Sessions 2-5
This rather is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound… breaking every yoke; sharing your bread… sheltering the oppressed clothing the naked… not turning your back…Isaiah 58: 6-9
PRACTICE DEEP LISTENING
Session 2 includes the artistically beautiful 28 minute film Invitation from God
with Father Keating at St. Benedict’s monastery in Snowmass, Colorado. Here
we are encouraged to practice deep listening which is one of the
foundations of the contemplative life. The film is meditative and
includes beautiful photography from nature as well as the monastery.
Another way to practice deep listening “with eye and ear of the heart” is
through image gazing. Each of the 5 sessions I view include a
different stained glass image by Frederick Franck, titled Tao of the Cross. I
find these images to be quite powerful, disabling my defenses and
speaking directly to my heart. We are encouraged to interact with each
image in unique ways. These experiences open up intuitions into Christ’s
passion in new ways for me. As I read the reflections of others in the
Practice Circle I become aware that many others are powerfully affected by the Tao
of the Cross.
Session 3 encourages us to examine our attitudes toward God using affirmation
and gesture as effective ways of embodying a truth. Session 4 includes delightful
teachings from Thomas Keating about how the Divine playfully interacts
with us:
“We should relate
less and less in terms of reward and punishment and more and more on
the basis of the gratuity – or the play – of divine love.” -Guidelines for
Christian Life, Growth and Transformation,
Open Mind, Open Heart
Perhaps the sense of
God’s playfulness would help up to realize that the spiritual
journey is mostly God’s work.”
-Thomas Keating,
unpublished interview with Fr. Carl Arico, July 2013
Excerpts from Thomas
Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation introduce Session 5: The
Great Banquet – All Are Invited
Merton lyrically writes of God’s playfulness in the garden of creation inviting us all
to hear his call and “follow him in his mysterious, cosmic dance…For the
world and time are the dance of the Lord in emptiness. The silence of the
spheres is the music of a wedding feast.”
Nature, art, music, the play of children – all are ways of helping us glimpse into
God’s nature. This is how this wonderful retreat is allowing me to
experience Lent in a new and beautiful way.
Post by Nancy Moran