Contemplative Chapel Resumes Wednesday April 19
All are welcome to join in this community of contemplative practice that meets Wednesdays from 4:00-5:00 p.m. Central Time. No experience is necessary. To participate, Register here for the Zoom link.
Each hour-long session includes a brief welcome and closing blessing, along with two sessions of contemplative practice from ancient Christian tradition: Lectio Divina (holy reading) and a 20-minute session of Centering Prayer (or your own preferred method of opening to the gift of contemplation). Each week, Gary Jones reviews simple guidelines for these contemplative practices, as if all were beginners, which in a sense we all are.
Participants arrive and remain muted throughout each session, and you are welcome to have your video on or off (most leave their video on, but almost all occasionally turn it off). No one is called upon to speak – this is a time of pure and simple resting in God. Many find that group practice, even on Zoom, can be particularly helpful and mysteriously intimate. Participants give each other a great gift by holding a sacred space of peace, stillness, kindness, love, and non-judgmental compassion, so that our souls may emerge from hiding and receive the loving and healing presence of God.
A good place to begin: “Contemplative Outreach” publishes two pamphlets that I recommend highly – one on the ancient practice of Lectio Divina and the other on Centering Prayer. If you would like to join our virtual gatherings, please read these two pamphlets carefully. Although I will review the basics every time we get together, these pamphlets will prepare you nicely. Even if you are experienced in these ways of contemplative prayer, I think these little pamphlets can be re-read, over and over, to remind us of a counter-cultural way of being. The world is reminding us every day about the importance of planning, being organized, and orchestrating things. Lectio Divina and Centering Prayer depend on an entirely different posture: a posture of openness, receptivity, trust, surrender, letting go, and listening, so that another may speak and welcome you home again. These pamphlets can help with that.
English