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Centering Prayer saved my life. That’s true for me in many ways. The spiritual practice of contemplative prayer helped to quiet my often overactive and sometimes anxious and troubled mind and opened me to a peace that has sustained me through the years, especially when my work, my life, and the world around me were challenging and distressful—times much like this post-election period (insert lament, anguish, and the wringing of hands here … along with the invitation to “just sit” in silence and in the presence of God—Immanuel, God with us through it all).
Looking back on my journey of faith, it was first through meditation and then through the practice of Centering Prayer that I heard the still small voice of God calling me—inviting me—back into the Beloved Community, the church that I had been away from for years. Opening myself to deeper connection with the divine moved me to find a safe place where others were seeking to do the same, where I could be myself openly and honestly, and where I could be present to and with others.
I suppose, as a practitioner of contemplative prayer who had separated myself from “church,” I was that spiritual-but-not-religious person who had become disillusioned with what I thought church was and what “I thought” church community should be. Through Centering Prayer, I awakened to a need for community where I could rediscover God’s presence while becoming more self-aware and responsive to the needs of others both inside and outside the church.
I needed to find a church where there were people seeking to live into the vision of the Beloved Community, “where there is justice, and where everyone is free to build and grow and love and to simply have enough,” to borrow from Bryan Sirchio’s song “Dream God’s Dream.”
Thomas Keating, Trappist monk and one of the principal teachers of Centering Prayer, wrote: “The spiritual radiation of a community depends on the commitment of its members to the transformational journey and to each other. To offer another space in which to grow is an integral part of this commitment.” (Learn more at contemplativeoutreach.org.)
Nearly 50 years ago, when I walked back into the church, I was blessed to find a community where corporate worship, song, prayer, and acts of compassion were the central spiritual practices and where relationships with God and others were nurtured. It was in that place that I reconnected with “church folks”—imperfect like me—who were seeking to live out their faith in their families, at work, and in the broader community. They were seeking—each in their own way—to “radiate” the spirit of God’s love in the world.
It was in my return to the church that I was awakened to the meaning of Beloved Community, defined by Jim Lockard in his book Creating the Beloved Community as “people on a spiritual pathway who seek a closer relationship with God (however named and defined) AND as people who will take their spiritual awareness into the world to be examples of love and compassion in action.” For Lockard, “finding and nurturing the compassionate heart and living from that loving center is the ultimate goal of spiritual community.”
Through the years, as a community member and spiritual leader, I came to understand that there are many pathways to nurture individual and corporate spiritual growth, ways that lead to “love and compassion in action,” ways that take into account different personality types, different cultural approaches, and different spiritual traditions.
In the midst of parish life, I have witnessed spiritual growth and formation when people have gathered in small groups for Centering Prayer and intercessory prayer, read and reflected on books and videos, and participated in Bible studies both scholarly and meditative as in Lectio Divina. I have known people to become spiritually alive in traditional and contemporary forms of worship (yes, worship) and when singing and praying in meditative forms of worship like Taize and when they have gathered to discern and envision the future. During my 40 years, I have also seen people grow in spirit and in faith as they’ve participated in Conference-wide programs such as Unwrapping Our Gifts that helped participants discern their gifts for ministry and The Pilgrimage, a series of three retreats that introduced people to the variety of spiritual practices.
Looking back on 40 years of ministry, I believe it’s in those precious times spent in personal and group spiritual practice that we are opened to God’s saving grace and sustained through difficult and challenging times—times like these. It’s in our spiritual discernment that we are invited to discover who we are called to be and what we are called to do both as individuals and as a community.
This is best summarized by Robert Mulholland Jr. in his book Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation, where he defines spiritual formation as the process of being formed in the image of Christ, a journey into becoming persons of compassion, persons who forgive, persons who care deeply for others and the world. Our spiritual growth is to fit us for community and to inspire us to Love as we have been loved.
It is in spiritual practice, during the Advent season and throughout the year, that we are awakened to the vision of God’s peace, assured of the hope that God will be with us, opened to joy in God’s abiding presence, and empowered to love in the Way of the One born in Bethlehem—the Christ who calls us to Build the Beloved Community.
Questions for Reflection
- What spiritual practices have opened you to the presence of God and nurtured the compassionate heart within you?
- How have you experienced spirituality in your church and how has the movement of the Spirit encouraged the building of the Beloved Community?
- During the season of Advent, as we contemplate the incarnation and the embodiment of God’s love in a child born in Bethlehem, what spiritual practices have you found to be meaningful?
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