Contemplative Outreach of Central Pennsylvania Newsletter
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Upcoming Retreats & Workshops
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Mar 4-6 Apr 8-10 May 13-15 March 4-11 8-Day Intensive Retreat, presented by Susan Komis, "Interior Castle" - Seven Mansions of St. Teresa of Avila May 14 from 12:30 - 4:30 pm and the following six Thursday evenings from 7:00-8:30 pm. Introduction to Centering Prayer. At Good Shepherd RC Church in State College. Registration is $30.00. Scholarships are available. To register contact Nancy Cord-Baran by e-mail or phone 814-237-1002 . Mar 19 United in Prayer Day, 9:30 am to 4 pm Jun 10-15 Formation for Contemplative Outreach Service. Includes Presenter's Training. June 23-30 8-Day Intensive Retreat June 26-30 5-Day Intensive Centering Prayer Retreat Jul 24-31 8-Day Post-Intensive Retreat Aug 26-28 Contemplative Dimension of the 12 Steps
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 Welcome to the March 2011 issue of the Contemplative Outreach of Central Pennsylvania newsletter. We are a chapter of Contemplative Outreach. This issue is a little longer than usual because it turned into a special issue on the Welcoming Prayer. We hope you like it! Please Note... March 19 is United in Prayer Day at Bethany Retreat Center. Also we will be having a brief chapter meeting after the United in Prayer Day ends. All are welcome! 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. As always, if you have suggestions or comments on the newsletter, please send them! Gwen Stimely and Jet Schneider, Newsletter Co-Editors p.s. The beautiful winter photos came all the way from the Netherlands, compliments of Ger Oudshoorn. |
| New CD Available! | |  We have a new CD that we are selling to raise funds for the chapter. Contemplative Music and Silence for Centering Prayer is a collaborative effort with beautiful classical guitar music by Zachary Maser and original cover art donated by Will Espey. It has two tracks, one with twenty minutes of silence and one with thirty. Special thanks to Nancy, Caitlin and Nick Baran, and Tim and Patty Reddington. Contact Nancy or Tim if you are interested in buying a copy for $10.00. They will also be available at United in Prayer Day and at the Bethany Bookstore. Back to Top |
New Retreats and Workshops Announced
| |  Seven Session Introduction to Centering Prayer May 14 from 12:30 - 4:30 pm and the following six Thursday evenings from 7:00-8:30 pm at Good Shepherd RC Church in State College. Registration is $30.00. Scholarships are available. To register contact Nancy Cord-Baran by email or phone 814-237-1002 . It can be helpful to attend an Introductory Workshop more than once and if you have come before you are more than welcome to renew your prayer practice with us. You don't need to pay the $30 again but are welcome to make a donation to Contemplative Outreach of Central Pa. Contemplative Dimension of the 12 Steps Contemplative Outreach of Central Pa will be presenting a weekend retreat for people in 12-Step Programs of Recovery. It will be at the Bethany Retreat Center August 26-28. For flyers or more information contact Nancy Cord-Baran . Back to Top |
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Icon Writing Workshop
| |  In our last issue we mentioned an Icon Writing Workshop, taught by Dr. Russell Hart, Director of the Center for Spiritual Formation in Carlisle, PA, held in January at Park Forest Village United Methodist Church in State College. Here is a photo of participants showing their finished icons of St. Nicholas at the end of the workshop. Everyone enjoyed the personal instruction, and the contemplative dimension of writing Icons as "windows to heaven". Back to Top |
The Welcoming Prayer Method
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 | | Click the image above to see the entire brochure |
Focus, feel, and sink into the feelings, emotions, thoughts, sensations, and commentaries in your body.
Welcome the divine indwelling in the feelings, emotions, thoughts, commentaries, or sensations in your body by saying "Welcome."
Let go by repeating the following sentences:
"I let go of the desire for security, affection, control."
"I let go of the desire to change this feeling/sensation."
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 If you have been practicing the Welcoming Prayer, has it been helpful? If so, how? |
| from Cameron Auxer 
The Welcoming Prayer has become an important tool in my life. I use it in the traditional manner, focusing on the tissues with the issues, but also when an upset is in progress or my thoughts are spinning out on an old upset that I cling to. The prayer keeps me in the present and assists me in letting go. It is an extension of the centering prayer for me. Consent on the go! I feel so blessed to have been introduced to Contemplative Prayer.
from H.S.
The Welcoming Prayer has become an invaluable tool for me to handle difficulties daily life can bring, such as:
Sleepless nights, body aches and pains, fears of driving on snowy/icy roads, unpleasant encounters with others (either anticipated or unexpected), medical procedures, thoughts and feelings coming in awareness through action of the Divine Therapist in centering prayer - all of this and more has been helped by practicing the Welcoming Prayer.
It is a very powerful prayer, and can be used at the time a problem arises, and also in times of anticipated difficulty. I remember some years ago I had to meet monthly with a person who for me was really difficult to interact with. I became to dread our meetings, until I started to say the Welcoming Prayer every time before I was to go to the meeting, and also softly inside myself while in the meeting.
And then nothing short of a miracle happened : slowly but surely I started not dreading our meetings anymore, and now I can truly say I enjoy being around this person, loving her. The person hasn't changed, I have in the way I perceive her, by practicing the Welcoming Prayer.
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Using the "Welcoming Prayer" in Times of Grief
| | How to describe grief? It has been written about by many authors:
"Nothing can make up for the absence of someone we love and it would be wrong to find a substitute. We must simply hold out and see it through. That sounds very hard at first but at the same time it is a great consolation, for the gap, as long as it remains unfilled, preserves the bond between us. It is nonsense to say that God fills the gap. God does not fill it but on the contrary keeps it empty and so helps us to keep alive our forever communion with each other even at the cost of pain."
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
"I hold my face in my two hands.
No. I am not crying
I hold my face in my two hands
To keep the loneliness warm
Two hands protecting
Two hands nourishing
Two hands preventing
My soul from leaving me
In anger."
-Thich Nhat Hanh
'No one ever told me grief felt so like fear". -C.S. Lewis
"When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight". - Kahlil Gibran
"To spare oneself from grief at all cost can be achieved only at the price of total detachment, which excludes the ability to experience happiness". -Erich Fromm
Reading these quotes by such different voices, it becomes clear that grief is something universal, something having to do with how much we loved in this life, how great our attachment was to the one we have lost.
Feelings of fear and abandonment , of anger for being left alone bring us back to emotions of early childhood, to the emotional programs for happiness set in place there (Fr. Thomas Keating, In: Invitation to Love, chapter one). Feelings of worthlessness, depression, anger, fear - according to Fr.Keating, they have to do with the activation (frustration) of one of the following emotional programs developed in early childhood:
1. Desire for Power/Control
2. Desire for Affection/Esteem/Approval
3. Desire for Security/Survival
These three emotional centers are very powerful motivators in our daily life, motivators we are usually not consciously aware of. Any traumatic life event , including the loss of a loved one, can activate one or more of the above mentioned emotional centers, and will force us to become aware of them . It will awaken us, and this process can be very painful at times, coming over us in waves of grief.
In my own personal experience, this happened after my father died of a brief and serious illness nine years ago, with "reminders" of how this felt after two friends died of cancer last year.
I have found that Mary Mrozowski's 'Welcoming Prayer" was very helpful to me during those emotional times, as it addresses the activation of the three emotional programs for happiness directly. I have found this prayer to be a very powerful tool in dealing with any type of difficult situation in life, the minor and the major ones. I have also found that it is better to start practicing the prayer when encountering minor annoyances, so I won't forget to use it when major difficulties arise. The person who taught me the prayer, Sr. Therese Dush ,C.A. ( Director of the Bethany Retreat center in Frenchville, PA) gave all of her students little cards with the prayer printed on it, to put somewhere in our homes where we would frequently see them: on the refrigerator, the bathroom mirror, next to the computer, etc. This was done to remember to say the prayer during difficult times- so after awhile it would become a habit.
The Welcoming Prayer is a wonderful prayer to be part of one's "spiritual toolbox".
What else can anyone "do" to accompany someone who is grieving?
I believe Henri Nouwen says it best:
""When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares".
from Jet Schneider
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Please Share!
| | Please share your thoughts on the following quote from Thomas Keating: "The desire or demand for certitude is an obstacle to launching full sail on the ocean of trust." 
Please write a few words (or lots of words!) and send them to us. Selected submissions received by Apr 30th 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. Back to Top |
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