Contemplative Outreach News
Volume 8, Number 2 - Fall, 1994

A Visit to Anzio Beach || On Resistance || What is the Best Way to Pray?
Contemplative Profiles || Updates

A Visit to Anzio Beach

I graduated from high school in the spring of 1940 when bombs were falling all over Britain and Western Europe, and many of us sensed that the United States would eventually get involved in the war. Our graduation was thus overshadowed by the fact that we didn't know whether we had a future or not.

During my two years at Yale, I experienced a deep religious conversion. In my interior struggles I found in the Sterling Library a set of commentaries on the four gospels by the Fathers of the Church. They opened my eyes to the fact that the Christian religion can only be fully grasped from a contemplative perspective. The pages of these books were still uncut, and I wonder if anyone after me ever picked them up again.

In those days it was commonly taught in Christian circles that only the most austere kind of life could lead to contemplation. So I looked around for the most austere order I could find. I decided to join the Trappists, but could not do so right away because parental consent in writing was required for anyone under twenty-one, and my parents were vehemently opposed. Meanwhile the U.S. had entered the war and our class was accelerated. I dropped out, because of a previous commitment, for the summer of '42 and moved to Fordham University in the fall while waiting to be drafted.

When home on vacations, I used to walk to the local parish church every day because of the gas rationing. The elderly housekeeper at the rectory noticed me walking a couple of miles to attend mass every day and made up her mind that anyone this devout should be in a seminary. She accosted me one day and said, as if in confidence, "Why don't you see the Pastor? He is very fatherly." Actually I had no interest in seeing him. The diocesan priesthood did not attract me. However, I did go to see the Pastor who did indeed have a fatherly concern for me. He said, "Why don't you talk to the Bishop about your situation? I'll arrange an interview." So I did. The Bishop saw no difficulty in registering me as a pre-theological student. Still I felt uneasy. All my friends were going to the war, and here I was being deferred as a diocesan seminarian when O intended to become a Trappist monk. The Pastor saw my hesitation and said off-handedly, "This war is not meant for you." Those words somehow lodged in my heart and brought a quiet conviction that this was the right path for me to accept.

"This war is not meant for you." It took me twenty years to understand the full meaning of these words. I entered the Trappists in January, 1944, as Anzio Beach and the Italian campaign were taking place. The Allies were trying to fight their way up the peninsula to Rome. Thousands of men were being killed on both sides. I entered the monastery specifically to pray for these people and all the other victims of the War.

Twenty years later at the end of the Second Vatican Council, I was the Abbot of a large monastery, and serious questions about monastic life were being raised. It is hard to communicate what that meant in a cloistered community with a tradition of nine hundred years of an austere lifestyle identified as the royal road to Christian perfection. The Trappist regime included a silence that was almost complete, extreme separation from the world, vigorous fasting and manual labor, in addition to rising at 2:00 A.M. every day. Half of the community wanted to maintain this strict regime. The other half wanted the observances to be adjusted to modern needs and conditions. The tensions in the community were enormous. The abbot in those days tended to be the focal point for whatever tensions that were simmering or sometimes boiling over.

I was in Rome during this time to discuss the burning issues of change with other abbots of the Order when it was mercifully decided to take a day off. Several of us went for a drive to Anzio Beach and stopped at the American military cemetery nearby. As I glanced at the names and the date of death of men buried there, I noticed that they were killed at about the same time that I was entering the monastery and experiencing its rigors. As I stood in this beautifully kept cemetery, I slowly realized that I was among friends. It was as if I had come home for a long-awaited visit. I felt an incredible sense of gratitude surrounding me from the men buried there, row on row, as if they were saying, "Here is the guy who was praying for us when we were going up the Po Valley to be shot to pieces. Thanks for helping us with your life of prayer when we desperately needed prayers. Now we are going to help you in your war."

The words of my old Pastor flashed back to me: "This war is not meant for you." I finally understood their profound meaning. In place of the terrible war from which God had spared me for no merit of my own, I now had a war on my hands that would last a good deal longer than World War II, and I would need all the help I could get. I realized that I owed these people much more than they owed me.

That experience helped me through the difficult years that followed. It also impressed upon me the realization that everything in human affairs is interconnected. There are no elite. We all depend on one another. The doctrine of the communion of Saints exploded into reality for me. It affirms that those who have gone before us, are present to us now, helping us insofar as they can. As human beings we are all one family, rooted in one Source and destined for the same end, in various stages of getting there, or falling back and trying again.

A Visit to Anzio Beach || On Resistance || What is the Best Way to Pray?
Contemplative Profiles || Updates

On Resistance

I don't have time to meditate. I have too many things to do. To think about. To worry over. I am a very busy person. Besides, there is too much noise here. Growling truck motors, screaming sirens, neighborhood dogs, and my upstairs neighbor in her antique rocking Chair with the slow, deliberate squeak. I don't need to look for any more reasons. There are plenty here to justify my stance: I can not meditate...."Okay," a little voice says. "Don't."....But I want to. Whenever I relax in the park, or gaze at the ocean or clouds, or listen to certain music, or watch my cat dozing in the sunlight, I touch a quiet place inside me, a familiar place. Sometimes, becoming absorbed, I even forget myself. When I "see" again, I wonder where I've been, and sometimes, I can't remember.

They tell me that's what it's like to meditate. An absorption. Intense concentration. Internal gazing. That's when I want to give it a try. And they also say, sometimes the rocking chairs, sirens, and thoughts insist on relentless repetition. That's when I doubt my efforts will work. But, they say my efforts will pay off. And they speak from their own experiences. Can I do it? Can I focus my attention so that external and internal sounds will not distract me? They suggest I not define distractions. Everything just is. And they tell me how to use a phrase or sacred word as a way to focus. I want to try. I really do. I can't forget those special times of clouds or ocean or music....I say "YES," and finally, my personal commitment is made. I will try.

Now, much later on, I smile, aware that while the squeaking rocker is silenced, the barking dogs are replaced by squealing 13 year olds, and the growling trucks pre-empted by the motorcycle of my favorite neighbor...I smile. "Everything just is."

Claire Durand-Racamato
Yardley, PA

A Visit to Anzio Beach || On Resistance || What is the Best Way to Pray?
Contemplative Profiles || Updates

What is the Best Way to Pray?

As I slowly opened my eyes, I felt a sense of wonder with the completion of the thirty minute Centering Prayer session. My first reaction had been to realize how fortunate I was to be alive. The individuals in the centering group are not intimate friends of mine: however, we have a bond that could only be descried as sacred. How can a simple method of prayer help foster such a bond? I will attempt to answer this question by explaining how centering prayer is changing my life.

I have always had a need to pray. The question for me had never been, Why pray?" but rather, "What is the best way to acknowledge my love for God in Jesus Christ?" Centering Prayer answers this need in the following manner: It helps me to know myself better, and to listen more attentively. This, in turn, allows me to respond to God and His creation in a more effective manner. I desire to draw near to the God of Jesus Christ and every morning, alone and detached from thoughts with nothing but my "sacred word," I begin my prayer. For the next thirty or forty minutes, in silence and with no place to hide, I sit and pray.

I sit helplessly as fear, anger and an array of other emotions assault me, yet with each thought, I ever-so-gently return to my "sacred word." Some days I derive enormous peace from Centering Prayer, and other days I'm simply confused and frustrated; but gradually, with each passing day, I seem to understand my unconscious motivations better than the day before. Centering Prayer is like a spotlight, which helps me focus in on my inner being, enabling me to see my selfishness, my sloth, and my other sins.

The discipline of being detached from thoughts, sitting in a still position for a certain period each day, is also helping me to listen better. We live in a culture where we are bombarded with words and images. Fast talk, fast food, and action-paced movies are normal today--but to truly listen has become a lost art. To listen, either to ourselves or others, presupposes our openness to the present moment in a way that draws us closer to God and each other. Centering Prayer has helped me to listen differently than in previous days: the background noise has been lowered and I'm better able to appreciate the world around me.

Anthony J. Russo
New York, N.Y.

A Visit to Anzio Beach || On Resistance || What is the Best Way to Pray?
Contemplative Profiles || Updates

Contemplative Profiles

St. Teresa of Avila

Name:

Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada (1515-1582)

Life: 

Born in Avila in 1515, into a minor and impoverished aristocratic family. At the age of 21, she entered the Carmel of the Incarnation there, and remained there for 20 years. In that time she grew spiritually, undergoing a spiritual conversion about 1556-1557. She saw the need for a reform, and in 1562 she established her first reformed convent, St. Joseph's in Avila. With the approval of the Order she extended the Reform, and in her lifetime founded seventeen reformed convents for women and two reformed monasteries for men. Towards the end of her life there was conflict between the Reform and the Order. Eventually, after Teresa's death, the Reform became a separate Order.

Historical Context: 

Sixteenth century Europe was an age of discovery and expansion. It was an age of growing self-consciousness, both among nations and among individuals.

The Protestant Reformation, begun in 1517, shattered and divided Europe. But Spain, mainly through the influence of Cardinal Cisneros, who initiated a rigorous process of reform which anticipated both the Protestant Reformation and the Council of Trent, together with the Catholic monarchy, was never to let the Protestant Reformation gain a foothold. Spain, as the sixteenth century advanced, became the spearhead of the Catholic Counter Reformation. It was an age of violent religious feeling and many, including Teresa, came under suspicion of the Inquisition.

Contemplative Dimension: 

Prayer stood at the center of Teresa's teaching, and she saw it as a companionship with God. Therefore, she knew it was not a static thing and she sought to express the nature of the relationship and its development. Teresa considered the life of prayer in terms of love. She sees detachment, humility and love as important prerequisites to a life of prayer, plus the courage to persevere. In this way the relationship of love develops with the Lord who dwells within. The fruit of this life is service to others. The life of prayer opens the person to others.

Teresa taught that if we truly desire God, if we show we are serious about seeking him, then he will unfailingly give himself to us.

Major Works 

Life The Way of Perfection Interior Castle Book of the Foundations Conceptions of the Love of God Exclamations of the Soul to God Poems

Quotes 

"I shall now speak of those who are beginning to be the servants of love--for this, I think, is what we become when we resolve to follow in the way of prayer, Him who so greatly loved us." (Life)

"I think our best plan is to place ourselves in the Lord's presence, meditate upon his mercy and grace and upon our own lowliness, and leave him to give us what he wills." (Interior Castle, Ch. 6)

"The highest perfection consists not in interior favors or in great raptures or in visions or in the spirit of prophecy, but in the bringing of our wills so closely into conformity with the will of God that, as soon as we realize he wills anything, we desire it ourselves." (Book of Foundations, Ch.5)

Recommended Reading

St. Teresa of Avila. Vol. 1 & 2
By Kieman Kavanaugh, O.C.D. and Otilo Rodriguez, O.C.D.
Publ. I.C.S. Washington, D.C. 1976

Spirituality of St. Teresa of Avila
By Sr. Alfonseta Haneman
St. Paul Editions, Boston 1983

Carmelite Studies. Vol. 1 & 3
Publ. I.C.S. Washington, D.C. Vol. 1 - 1980; Vol. 3 - 1984

 

A Visit to Anzio Beach || On Resistance || What is the Best Way to Pray?
Contemplative Profiles || Updates

Updates

WARWICK, NEW YORK

Chrysalis House was founded by Fr. Thomas Keating and a group of laypeople as an experiment in contemplative community, with Centering Prayer as the foundation of its spirituality. Centering Prayer retreats, workshops and experiences in contemplative living are offered at Chrysalis House. Guests come from the Metropolitan New York area, from around the country, and from around the world. A small group of women and men who make commitments of one year or longer comprise the core resident community. Others come to live for shorter periods of extended retreat stays and formative experiences. Those from the area who have been through the "Course: The Practice of Contemplative Living" --a community process that meets one weekend a month for nine consecutive months--also participate in the life and work of the house by coming periodically to serve, for example, on a weekend. In this way, people with different lifestyles and commitments join together at Chrysalis House in a common spiritual practice for different periods of time (days, weeks, months, a year or longer) to nourish their contemplative lives in different ways (through retreat, formation, support, or service).

ST.PAUL, MINNESOTA

The downtown Center dedicated to Centering Prayer was blessed August 21, 1994. The blessing was performed by Bishop Lawrence Welsh and the Prioress Sr. Eleanor Wartman, OSB. Fr. Thomas Keating was present and participated with a homily stating that Centering Prayer places us on the cutting edge of life. Fr. Keating's visit included an afternoon with Centering Prayer facilitators the day after the dedication at the Center. The Center is intended to be an oasis of quiet for the busy people of downtown St. Paul. Centering Prayer sessions are held four times a week.

BUFFALO, NEW YORK

There are three active groups which meet weekly in Buffalo. Besides the regular weekly Centering Prayer Support Groups they also meet as one group about three times a year for a day long study and centering day. They had a wonderful day on Saturday, June 15, 1994. Fifteen people spent the entire day together at a house of prayer. They had two one-half hour periods with a contemplative walk in between, both in the morning and in the afternoon. There was ample space and time for quiet, solitude, walks, and reflection. Presentations were given on "pure hearts" and on "hearts that are pure."

Sr. Dorothy Fenz, SSJ 

HOUSTON,TEXAS 

Fred Eckart, Contemplative Outreach coordinator in Houston, presented an Introductory Workshop on Centering Prayer to thirty inmates of the Walls Unit of the Texas State Prison system in Huntsville, Texas on Saturday, October 8, 1994. Huntsville is 80 miles north of Houston. Additional workshops are being planned for two other units near Huntsville and a monthly follow-up program is planned starting in early November. The most remarkable, immediate effect of the day was to have the chaplain, Fr. Bob Zawacki make a request to prison officials to allow the inmates at least one-half hour of "quiet time" in the chapel building each day for them to pray in quiet.

Fred Eckart

UNITED KINGDOM

The first Formation for Contemplative Outreach Service Workshop was held in the United Kingdom this April. Fr. Carl Arico, Vice-President of Contemplative Outreach, and Gail Fitzpatrick-Hopler, Executive Director, presented the workshop with Fr. Joseph Chalmers, O. Carm and Elizabeth Smith. There were twenty-four participants. Fr. Carl and Gail also presented two Open Mind, Open Heart weekend workshops. In August 1995 Gail will return to lead a 10-day Intensive retreat. The Spiritual Journey video tapes series will be used for the first time during the 10 day.

Elizabeth Smith
NR Preston

PHILIPPINES - A Glimpse of Reality

"No prophet is honored in his own country."
  (Luke 4:24)

This verse in Luke's gospel has not had any profound meaning in my life until today. As I was reading it, my heart was filled with gratitude for it showed me how a particular pain of rejection that happened to me in the recent past has actually set me free. I saw the Lord's hand that let me to greater freedom. He took away a lot of "props" in my life--such as that of assuming roles, having certain pre-conceived ideas about what a Franciscan should be--and I realized I didn't need all of these. he removed all my boundaries which brought about the restructuring of the way I looked a reality.

Thank you, Lord, for setting me free.

A Visit to Anzio Beach || On Resistance || What is the Best Way to Pray?
Contemplative Profiles || Updates