We sit with God, our beloved. We do not sit with God for what we will obtain. We do not sit and expect a gift in return. “Lift your heart up to the Lord with a gentle stirring of love, desiring Him for His own sake and not for His gifts.” This is a teaching from the classic contemplative book, The Cloud of Unknowing.
We enter centering prayer with no expectations to receive the gift of contemplative prayer. Contemplative prayer is prayer in which we experience God’s presence within. We sit naked before God. It is God and us. Our whole being, body, mind and soul is in the pure presence of God. There is nothing between God and us. Contemplative prayer is a prayer of love without any ulterior motives. We pray because we love God. If and when God’s presence becomes known is not our business. Our business is simple to wait in silence and stillness, which are God’s first languages (John of the Cross).
Fruits of centering prayer… We do not enter this prayer for them. Each time we sit with God, we give God another opportunity to act in us. (I believe God also acts within us during our non-centering times.) We say, “Here I am God. Do with me whatever you want.” This time is unique for each person. God will do whatever God wants to do within you.
The actions that arise from my centering prayer practice are the fruits.
What actions has God prayed in me that will be revealed in my world?
I notice I have more patience. I am more willing to listen to my child, my friend, a coworker without judgment. I am willing to see and hear things from a different perspective.
I notice that I react more calmly to situations when things do not go as I had hoped. I let the situation be. What can I learn from the situation? Many times I do not need to take any action. It resolves itself.
I notice I do not seem to panic when I have multiple tasks that need to get completed in a short period. Some of the tasks do not need to be done. Some of the tasks are simpler than I originally thought.
Lastly, I have more compassion, excitement for life, inner peace and wisdom for daily
tasks.
Again, I did not enter this time for these fruits. They were freely given to me by God as I waited in silence and opened myself. As you continue your practice, you too will notice how you have been blessed with fruits as a result of your daily sits.
Go Further:
Intimacy with God: An Introduction to Centering Prayer by Thomas Keating
Open Mind, Open Heart 20th Anniversary Edition by Thomas Keating
The Path of Centering Prayer by David Frenette
A Taste of Silence: Centering Prayer and the Contemplative Journey by Carl J Arico
this post may contain affiliate links
Contemplative Light offers courses on contemplative practices (Christian Meditation, Centering Prayer, The Examen, Lectio Divina, The Jesus Prayer), the Christian mystics (ancient and current) and spiritual writing. Peruse their wonderful offerings.
Celtic Spirituality At the Edge of Mystery by Carl McColman: Consider it a pilgrimage into one of the best examples of everyday spirituality. Celtic wisdom and poetry encourages us to recognize the holy all around us, honors and protects the sacred earth, gives inspiration to free our creative voice, and presents a holistic path that links the quest for holiness with an embodied sense of Divine love.
Holy Silence: The Quaker Way by J. Brent Bill: Quaker silence is not about stillness, as such, but rather about encountering God in a living and vital holy hush. This e-course encourages women and men to undertake a journey of spiritual silence. The destination is a quiet inner place where God teaches us directly. Friends (as Quakers are formally known) have been honing their take on silence for more than 350 years. It’s a silence that invites us to an immediate and personal encounter with God. That’s because Quakers believe that when we are silent, then the Spirit of God grants us insights, guidance, and understanding of spiritual truth.
The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers and Mothers by Christine Valters Paintner: The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers and Mothers with Christine Valters Paintner” is an Online Retreat that enables you to explore and engage with the insights of the desert mothers and fathers of fourth and fifth century Egypt. These men and women of God went to the desert to live out a simple but challenging spirituality that still resonates strongly for us today.
As a Spaniard, I feel so honoured that you would quote San Juan de la Cruz, one of our greatest mystics and literary geniuses. His ‘Noche Oscura del Alma’ (‘Dark Night of the Soul), which he wrote while being imprisoned by the Inquisition due to its rather blunt homosexual overtones, is one of the great Classics of Spanish Literature and of World Mysticism.
San Juan expresses his love for Jesus and his mystical union with him in rather fleshly terms, and he is completely unabashed and taken away by this ever-growing love that transcends his body and soul. From our XXIst century perspective, he is a gay-icon and a symbol for the embodied love for JesusChrist: uncompromising, romantic, erotic and pure-hearted all in one.
May we all arrive at that blessed knowledge and that blessed state without the rigours of a XVIth Spanish prison and whatever our sexuality maybe. Thank you very much Mr Lewis for sharing so much of your hardly acquired knowledge with us. Greetings from the old country.
Greetings all the way to Spain! Thank you for sharing your insight on this wonderful Mystic.