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SAVE THE DATE
Six-Day Centering Prayer Retreat
Claggett Retreat Center ~ Oct. 29-Nov. 3, 2023
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Contemplative Outreach of Maryland and Washington
(COMW)
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COMW in 2023: THE HEALING ROLE OF CONTEMPLATION | |
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As we begin a new year of retreat offerings (monthly and a six-day retreat in October), we have chosen a theme for 2023: The Healing Role of Contemplation. We believe that a regular period of Centering Prayer practice will allow us to live out what God is calling us to do, bringing healing into a world in which conflict and injury are all too present.
We invite you to join us!
Benedicte Vibe Christensen, COMW Chapter Coordinator
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We will start the retreat year in February, commemorating Black History Month, by focusing on one of this country’s greatest contemplative leaders, a theologian and civil rights leader, Howard Thurman. There will be two opportunities, February 4 and February 18.
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Part One | Sponsored by Contemplative Outreach Atlanta
Howard Thurman: An Active Contemplative
Saturday, February 4, 10 am - 12:30 pm ET on Zoom
We will partner with Contemplative Outreach of Atlanta to hear Lerita Coleman Brown. Dr. Brown is the author of the recently published book: "What Makes You Come Alive: A Spiritual Walk With Howard Thurman." She will share her insights on Howard Thurman during a brief workshop, punctuated with Centering Prayer.
Please click the link below to register and pay on the CO Atlanta website.
Details and Registration>
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Part Two | Sponsored by Contemplative Outreach of Maryland and Washington
Conversations with Howard Thurman
Saturday, February 18, 9 am - 12 pm ET on Zoom
COMW will offer a half-day retreat, showing a video interview with Howard Thurman, followed by a discussion hosted by Benedicte Vibe Christensen, the COMW Chapter Coordinator. In the film Thurman explains his own experience with prayer and meditation and how it reflects the “hunger of the heart” that needs to be nourished. The retreat will include periods of Centering Prayer. This film and discussion are free of charge. We will gratefully accept donations.
Details and Registration>
Program Facilitator: Benedicte Vibe Christensen
Selected Books, Audios, and Videos by or about Howard Thurman
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SIX-DAY CENTERING PRAYER RETREAT | |
Sponsored by Contemplative Outreach of Maryland and Washington | |
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Intensive & Post-Intensive
Oct. 29 - Nov. 3, 2023
Claggett Retreat Center
Adamstown, Maryland
The retreat will provide an opportunity to deepen one’s practice of Centering Prayer in an atmosphere of profound silence and community support. Look for more details and registration information to come. Register early as there is limited capacity.
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The Contemplative Outreach of Maryland and Washington (COMW), a chapter of the international Contemplative Outreach Ltd, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.
Our mission is to provide basic instruction in Centering Prayer and additional programs in support of contemplation and transformation by offering half-day retreats, overnight retreats and instructional gatherings for potential Centering Prayer facilitators. We maintain a website that serves our contemplative community, and which hosts a library of our recorded retreats. The practice of Centering Prayer enables us to bring dispositions of humility and attentive listening into our service, charity, and unity with the whole human family and all of creation.
As we celebrate the first 25 years of our existence as a CO chapter, we would like to offer many more programs in the next 25 years. As a nonprofit organization, we pay for our ongoing expenses through donations. We hope that you will support our programs as you are able. We are very grateful for any donation you make toward our future work in the coming 25 years.
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VIDEOS NOW AVAILABLE FROM COMW | |
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"How Contemplation Can Heal a Violent World" led by the Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, Bishop of Maryland
(Recorded September 10, 2022)
In the 25th Anniversary celebration of Contemplative Outreach of Maryland and Washington (COMW), the Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, led a full-day retreat on how contemplation is as relevant as ever in today’s world of violence at all levels of our lives, both domestically and globally. Indeed, Centering Prayer, as one form of contemplation, is a method for stilling our minds and in silence opening our hearts to peace and understanding, thereby creating a foundation for a nonviolent response to any event that occurs in our lives. More>
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"Thomas Keating and the Snowmass Dialogue" led by Netanel Miles-Yepez
(Recorded November 19, 2022)
Netanel Miles-Yepez, discusses the famous Snowmass Interreligious Conference (as described in his book, “The Common Heart, An Experience of Interreligious Dialogue”), that was convened by Father Thomas Keating, bringing religious leaders into retreat with one another from 1984 to 2015. He also talks about Father Thomas’ views on contemplative practice, dialogue, and interspirituality.
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"Unbinding Thomas Merton and Ourselves" led by Leslye Colvin
(Recorded July 16, 2022)
During his apostolic visit to the United States in 2015, Pope Francis described Thomas Merton as “a man of prayer, a thinker who challenged the certitudes of his time and opened new horizons for souls and for the Church.” This is beyond the man we know as a monk and writer, or is it?
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"Practical Mysticism: Teachings from Evelyn Underhill"
led by the Rt. Rev. Porter Taylor
(Recorded June 18, 2022)
Evelyn Underhill wrote, “God is the only reality, and we are only real in so far as we are in God’s order and God is in us…. So those who wonder where they are to begin might begin here, by trying to give spiritual quality to every detail of their everyday lives.”
As followers of Jesus, how do we give spiritual quality to every detail of our everyday lives? In a time of conflict across the globe and COVID 19 and deep divisions in this country, how do we discover and maintain our connection to the only reality?
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"The Welcoming Prayer"
led by Mary Dwyer
(Recorded April 9, 2022)
The Welcoming Prayer is a method of consenting to God's presence and action in the midst of the ordinary routines of our daily lives. To practice Welcoming allows us to make choices free of the domination of the false self system. We begin to respond rather than automatically react to life on life's terms. As the originator of Welcoming, Mary Mrozowski, stated, "To welcome and to let go is one of the most radically loving, faith-filled gestures we can make in each moment of each day. It is an open-hearted embrace of all that is in ourselves and in the world."
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OTHER AREA RESOURCES, RETREATS & EVENTS | |
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COMW FACILITATOR TRAINING/ENRICHMENT
In partnership with our national organization, Contemplative Outreach Ltd. (COL), COMW offers a hybrid path for Facilitator training/enrichment for those in our Maryland/Washington DC area. It combines:
- COL’s online training program
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As an enrichment, you can download free slides and handouts and exercises from a more recent online facilitator training retreat, but no videos are available.
- A COMW mentoring period, as suggested in The Facilitator’s Handbook
- COMW’S in-person, overnight Facilitating Workshop (TBA)
For details and registration information click here.
Contact Marjorie Centofanti for further information.
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Contemplative Outreach of Maryland & Washington (COMW)
The intent of Contemplative Outreach is to foster
the process of transformation in Christ in one another
through the practice of the Centering Prayer.
Join us on this important journey!
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$15 $25 $35 -- No amount is too small! Your donation supports our Centering Prayer retreats and scholarships.
Thank You!
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