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Welcome to the October 2010 issue of the Contemplative Outreach of Central Pennsylvania newsletter. We are a chapter of Contemplative Outreach. You can see on the left-hand side of this email that the dates are set for the nine-month course on Contemplative Prayer. Many people have wondered if it's necessary to attend all nine retreats. It's wonderful if you can, but if you can't, you can still attend an individual retreat. They do fill up, so if you're considering attending, the earlier you can make your reservation, the better. Also, Bethany does offer a discount if you register for several retreats in advance. Going to a retreat is not only a gift to yourself, it's also a gift to everyone around you... and not just because they can get rid of you for a couple of days! :) Please consider sending us a few words on this month's question for the next issue. We'd love to hear from you, whether it's for the first time or you've contributed in the past. Also, please consider attending Visioning Day at Bethany on November 20th, to add your thoughts and ideas to a discussion of the future of our community. We've added a new section to our COCP Website. When you click the Newsletter link at the top of the page, you can now view all the past issues of this newsletter. If you have suggestions or comments on the newsletter, please send them! Gwen Stimely and Jet Schneider, Newsletter Co-Editors |
 Visioning Day - An Invitation
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 | | Nancy Cord-Baran, John Kelsey, Tim Reddington |
All those who are interested in Contemplative Outreach of Central PA are invited to Bethany Retreat Center on November 20th for a Visioning and Planning Day. This day provides an opportunity for all members of our chapter to gather together to celebrate our history, assess our needs as a contemplative community, and envision future growth and direction. All participants will have an opportunity to give input and be a part of future planning as we envision our potential as a Contemplative Outreach community. We are excited about this day and encourage all to attend. The Co-Coordinators of our chapter, Tim Reddington and Nancy Cord-Baran, met with our new Regional Representative, John Kelsey, at the Contemplative Outreach Annual Conference last month to plan the Visioning Day. John will be coming up from North Carolina to facilitate with us on Saturday, November 20th.
It will begin at 9:30 with Centering Prayer and conclude at 3:30. Please bring a bag lunch. To register, and/or if you have questions, please e-mail Nancy Cord-Baran, or call her at 814-237-1002.
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Food for Thought
| |  From Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, Cynthia Bourgeault, Cowley Publications, 2004, p. 123.Thomas Merton once remarked: "The real freedom is to be able to come and go from that center and to do without anything that is not immediately connected to that center." For in point of fact, magnetic center will carry you home. It is indeed your interior compass, the needle of your heart pointing to the magnetic north of God. When the inner alignment is strong and steady, you find that you are able to follow the course of your own authentic unfolding with a kind of effortless grace. When the signal gets dim or you forget to listen, it's a pretty safe bet that you've wandered off-course. From Howard Thurman"In the stillness of the quiet, if we listen, we can hear the whisper of the heart giving strength to weakness, courage to fear, hope to despair" Back to Top |
| What advice do you have for someone just starting to practice Centering Prayer? |
| from H.S.
 Please don't get discouraged if you feel as if during the prayer period you are being bombarded with thoughts - simply return to the sacred word. Father Thomas Keating says that returning to the sacred word again and again, even if it is a thousand times, this is a thousand times consenting to God's Presence and action within. "Do not be anxious about anything [...] and the Peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."(Phillipians 4).
from Nancy Cord-Baran
Just do it. Don't be discouraged. It can be very helpful to pray with a group. There are many listed on the webpage. Don't expect to have no thoughts, fewer thoughts, good feelings, peace, or consolations (although you may in fact experience just that). No expectations, no judgments, just consenting to God's presence and action within. Trust God. We don't need to know what is happening. Perhaps we even feel like nothing is happening. Trust God. We are working with the Divine Therapist.
Thomas Keating says not to worry about doing the method exactly right. God honors our intention. The only way to do it wrong is not to do it.
If you have questions or concerns, please feel free to call me.
From Christopher Couch, Camp Hill 
Allow it.
A few weeks ago, I conducted a workshop on Centering Prayer at the church where I work. This was part of a Community Health Fair sponsored and hosted by the church.
Fortunately, folk arrived in twos and threes throughout the day to learn about Centering Prayer and to have the experience.
While I didn't want the exercise to sound too simple--since there is a discipline to it--I wanted to point out its lack of complexity, too, especially in the invitation into having the experience itself.
I directed those in attendance to relax as much as possible (given the constraints of rigid pews arranged in lines) and then to pray by using their prayer words or phrases and returning to those during the time of praying.
I guess this was showing how to pray by talking a little, taking any questions and anticipating any concerns, and then mainly directing and sharing the prayer with them. I promised to continue to be a resource regarding the Centering Prayer as any might continue the practice.
Was this learning through relationship? I think maybe it was.
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"Patient Trust, a poem by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
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|  Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient with everything To reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient with being on the way to something Unknown, something new. And yet it is the law of all progress That it is made by passing through Some stages of instability- And that it may take a very long time. And so I think it is with you. Your ideas mature gradually - let them grow, Let them shape themselves, without undue haste. Don't try to force them on, As though you could be today what time, (that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will) Will make of you tomorrow. Only God could say what this new spirit Gradually forming within you will be. Give yourself the benefit of believing That the Spirit is leading you, And accept the anxiety of feeling yourself In suspense and incomplete. Back to Top |
Learn How to Share Centering Prayer with Others
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|  Fri Oct 29 - Tue Nov 2 at Bethany |
Please Share!
| | If you have been practicing the Welcoming Prayer, has it been helpful? If so, how?
Please write a few words (or lots of words!) and send them to us. Submissions received by Nov 15th will appear in the next newsletter. Please include your town and note how you would like your name to appear - Anonymous, Initials, or Full Name. Suggestions?If you have suggestions for the newsletter, suggestions for "Please Share" questions for future issues, or comments of any sort, please send them to us. Back to Top |
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