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Contemplative Outreach News Quick Links Breathed by the Spiritby Fr. Thomas Keating
Earlier Jesus had taught, “How much more (than ordinary parents who give good gifts to their children) will the Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (Lk.11:13). Thus there is no doubt regarding the intent and ardent desire of the Father to impart the Spirit to us. The traditional liturgical hymn to the Holy Spirit prays, “Come Holy Spirit!”—Veni Sancte Spiritus! Hence there can be no doubt of the Spirit’s intent and ardent desire to be poured into the Body of Christ and into each one of Christ’s members. Let every breath then be a cry for the coming of the Holy Spirit, the supreme Gift of the Father and the Son. Let breathing be a way of participating in healing the sickness of the world paralyzed by selfishness, exhaling the saving power of the Spirit into the abyss of darkness that surrounds the earth’s atmosphere—the result of millennia of human brutality, violence, malice, indifference, and injustice.
In Centering Prayer we do not try to reflect, analyze, or understand. We invite the Spirit to take over our mental faculties—memory, intellect, and will. We disregard all sense impressions and our emotional reactions. We remain inwardly and outwardly silent and still, with no attention to external stimuli or particular movements of the mind. We cultivate consciousness without any particular content. Our intention is to rest in God and to be united with everything that exists in the Source of all that is. Ever-present Awareness does not do anything. It just is and sustains all that exists, letting all things follow their innate nature and fulfill their created purpose. We do not need to make acts of knowledge or will to be in God’s presence. At a certain point in contemplative prayer, to do so introduces a sense of separation from God or a certain uneasiness. Once God’s abiding presence is stabilized, we might even feel as if we were withdrawing from oneness with the divine by such acts. Ever-present Awareness is not looking at us, but at Itself in us.1 We may notice in everyday life an increase of mental, physical, and spiritual energy, and a certain quiet joy without knowing where it comes from. We feel detached from everything even while functioning in our customary ways. The past becomes inconsequential along with its contents, and the future is of no importance if we think of it at all. A sense of peace, freedom, spaciousness, and general well-being predominates.
Rest in the divine Trinity, in the bosom of the Father, in the heart of the Eternal Word, and in the infinite love of the Holy Spirit. This is the doctrine and experience of the Divine Indwelling, the most fundamental basis of our relationship with God. _____________
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Jesus
breathed on his disciples on the evening of his resurrection saying, “Receive
the Holy Spirit”. There is thus no doubt of Jesus’ intent and ardent desire
to communicate the Holy Spirit to us. 
Be effortlessly aware of the Ground of Being from which all
things arise at each nanosecond of time and which might be described as
ever-present Awareness keeping silent watch. It is nonjudgmental simple,
penetrating all reality; the backdrop, background, and source of everything, and
the eternal Now beneath the apparent movement of time.
In this context, we see that to seek rewards from God is a
misunderstanding because we already have what is better than any reward. We are
right now all that we can ever want or desire to be. We just think it isn’t
so. Stop thinking that thought and see what remains. Relax into the
all-embracing and boundless Presence of God which is beyond time, conceptual
thinking, words, and actions but present in everything that exists and
containing everything that exists.
