Download pdf file in a new window - Contemplative Outreach

...We can’t imagine what just sitting
twice a day in the presence of God
is doing to us. It is changing us into
Divine Love each in his or her own way.
distraught dad, on the basis of her own experience,
that he could get through his grief by taking just one
breath at a time.
Sarah lying there on the kitchen table during the
retreats reached a wisdom that the rest of us may
take a much longer time to absorb. As the ripe fruit
of her 34 years of powerlessness she gave back to her
parents in just one sentence all the wisdom that she
had received, thanks to their untiring and unconditional
love.
For me, Sarah is a symbol and icon of the
enormous possibilities of the Centering Prayer
practice. We can’t imagine what just sitting twice
a day in the presence of God is doing to us. It is
changing us into Divine Love each in his or her own
way. Sarah stands out as one of the prime persons
that God has given the Contemplative Outreach
community to pursue our vision of union with God
and service to the whole human family.
Was it a tragedy that she fell out of the baby
backpack? This question seems to be addressed in
the Parable of the Leaven. Leaven, in the Hebrew
Bible, was the symbol of corruption. The Israelites
couldn’t have it around during the celebration of
the Passover. Jesus says the unthinkable for those
who regarded leaven as the symbol of physical,
spiritual and moral corruption: “The Kingdom of
God”, the divine self-disclosure that is communicated
to us through this image, “is like leaven that
a woman took and kneaded into 50 pounds of
dough.” Monumental corruption must be part of the
kingdom! It is our attitude toward it that makes the
kingdom the Kingdom, or a nightmare.
Sarah’s accident that in anyone’s family would be
considered an utter tragedy, was transformed by
great love into a ministry for contemplatives and for
whoever saw her.
In my view, Sarah is one of the great treasures
that God has given to the Contemplative Outreach
family. Her advice is wonderful: Just one breath at
a time.
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CONTEMPLATIVE OUTREACH NEWS
DECEMBER 2009