The Center for contemplative practice
A Lay Cistercian Looks at Spiritual Reality
Month: November 2021
THE TABLE OF THE LORD: Being a penitent Lay Cistercian
If you wish to love Christ as He loved us, you must be a penitential person. How you that depends on your capacitas dei (capacity for God) and listening with the ear of your heart (St. Benedict in the Prologue to the Rule). This… Continue Reading “THE TABLE OF THE LORD: Being a penitent Lay Cistercian”
THE MARTYRDOM OF THE ORDINARY
Nota Bene: This blog is lengthy. As the Feast of the Nativity fast approaches, the thought comes to mind in Advent about how each one of us should be grateful for the fact that God became one of us because of love and to… Continue Reading “THE MARTYRDOM OF THE ORDINARY”
THE TABLE OF THE LORD
Being a Lay Cistercian is one of not only discovering what it means to be Cistercian and a Layperson, but also how that openness to the heart of Christ transforms me into something I was not before. If I am a Table of the… Continue Reading “THE TABLE OF THE LORD”
THE CHRIST PRINCIPLE: Rowing against the current of life
The following excerpt is from a book entitled Profound Listening: A Lay Cistercian reflects on habits that help “listen with the ear of the heart:” Due out in December 2021. ROWING AGAINST THE FLOW OF LIFE The struggle to be spiritual may be compared… Continue Reading “THE CHRIST PRINCIPLE: Rowing against the current of life”
THE CHRIST PRINCIPLE: The enjoyment of the cross in the martyrdom of the ordinary.
This title seems confusing, if not outright contradicting itself. The cross is associated with pain, suffocating rules that take away freedom, and sometimes even acute depression. While it can be that, there is an almost paradoxical twist to taking up our cross daily to… Continue Reading “THE CHRIST PRINCIPLE: The enjoyment of the cross in the martyrdom of the ordinary.”
UP, READY TO FIRE!
Yesterday was Veterans’ Day. I attended the Eucharist to pray for all those I know and don’t know and their families. That brought back some memories. In 1979, I was awarded The Chaplain of the Year by the Reserve Officers’ Association. I had to… Continue Reading “UP, READY TO FIRE!”
THE CHRIST PRINCIPLE: The Center
In its purest form, Lectio is a movement from just repeating one phrase in Holy Scriptures repeatedly before moving to the next sentence. Lectio has never been an end in itself, although beginners will try to move through each of the four steps of… Continue Reading “THE CHRIST PRINCIPLE: The Center”
G.K. CHESTERTON: Orthodoxy
I came across the following excerpt while reading some Chesteron as part of my spiritual reading. No comments from me. I enjoyed it and hoped that you might, too. What follows is my homage to one who challenges us to reflect on who we… Continue Reading “G.K. CHESTERTON: Orthodoxy”
THE CHRIST PRINCIPLE: I am the sum of my life choices and how I learned from them.
The Christ Principle is the center of all reality, the purpose for why all of us are. I am not you, you are not me; God is not you, and you, most certainly, are not God. –Michael F. Conrad There is one Christ Principle… Continue Reading “THE CHRIST PRINCIPLE: I am the sum of my life choices and how I learned from them.”
SIRACH: A Perfect Prayer As You Stand Vigil Before The Blessed Sacrament
As I learned about Lectio Divina from Brother Michael, O.C.S.O., our Junior Instructor for Lay Cistercians at Our Lady of the Holy Spirit (Trappist), Conyers, Georgia, this way of praying is at the center of Cistercian spirituality, and so is what we Lay Cistercians… Continue Reading “SIRACH: A Perfect Prayer As You Stand Vigil Before The Blessed Sacrament”
PROFOUND LISTENING: Conditions for listening to the Holy Spirit.
Several years ago, I tried to bake one batch of biscuits to fix biscuits and gravy for my anniversary. “Tried” is the operable word here because I found out baking is not a skill that I have yet acquired, much less mastered. If I… Continue Reading “PROFOUND LISTENING: Conditions for listening to the Holy Spirit.”
PROFOUND LISTENING: How to listen with the “ear of the heart”.
When St. Benedict wrote his Rule at the very beginning of the Prologue, his warning to brothers and sisters was to “listen with the ear of your heart.” Cistercian contemplative practices allow me to have Christ Jesus’s mind each day and be aware that… Continue Reading “PROFOUND LISTENING: How to listen with the “ear of the heart”.”
TEN SURE WAYS TO LOSE YOUR FAITH
“Faith,” as a topic has always been a terrible teaser to me. Faith is the substance of what I believe, and yet, it is a Mystery of Faith; one has eluded me at the same time I find myself moving towards some semblance of… Continue Reading “TEN SURE WAYS TO LOSE YOUR FAITH”
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