Open Mind, Open Heart/The Mystery of Christ
Cunningham, Lawrence S.
THE WAYS OF THE PILGRIMS OPEN HIND, OPEN HEART Thomas Keating Amity House, $8.95 137 pp. THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST The Liturgy as Spiritual Experience Thomas Keating Amity House, $8.95 129...
...The Mystery of Christ, by contrast, is an extended meditation on the liturgical year, its feasts, symbols, and themes...
...I could not but think, as I read these two edifying volumes, how our Catholic tradition of spirituality needs to drink deep from the wisdom of Orthodoxy where contemplative prayer and liturgy are more deeply conjoined...
...The liturgy speaks of Christ and speaks to us as well...
...Modern urban life does not operate on a daily schedule...
...The task that I would set for Keating is the practical but difficult one of connecting the liturgy to the deepening of the spiritual life for the ordinary Catholic...
...As one formed in the monastic round of the Opus Dei he is keenly attuned to the changing emphases of the liturgical season and the peculiar demands that those changes bring...
...in the reception of Communion...
...This shift came about both as a reaction against quietism and Jansenism and as an acceptance of the post-Cartesian penchant for clear thinking and intellectual rigor...
...Open Heart, Open Mind is essentially a vade mecum for those who wish to follow this contemplative practice, with separate chapters on the practice itself...
...It was only early in this century, through a recovery of the tradition of John of the Cross, that the older paradigm for contemplative prayer began to be reappropri-ated...
...Both these works under review had their origin in conferences and retreats given to various groups over the last decade...
...We organize our time not according to the round of daily rural chores but by the week of work and what leisure the weekend may afford...
...Another way of saying this is that the kind of life envisioned by Keating would be difficult for most urban persons and a Utopian dream for single parents, working mothers, and so on...
...Keating's apostolate, in short, is to recall the contemplative tradition of monasticism in such a way that it can become available to those who live outside the cloister...
...At the end of the sixteenth century, however, there was a decided shift when, largely under the influence of the Jesuits and the Spiritual Exercises, discursive meditation became the norm for Christians and contemplative "graces" became the privilege of the very few...
...THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST The Liturgy as Spiritual Experience Thomas Keating Amity House, $8.95 129 pp...
...it is a rare kind of writing to find today...
...because the treasures of the contemplative tradition always enrich, correct, and deepen the life of the church.life of the church...
...Keating is interested in neither historical nor technical theological questions...
...That is a great grace for the church (may his number increase...
...What, in other words, is the bridge between the two volumes under review...
...They attest to a deep faith, a clarity of expression, and a passion to communicate...
...Too often, prayer became mental rumination with an expression of the will to do this or avoid that as the conclusion of a meditation...
...Like a Russian starets, Keating has spent years in the silent life of monasticism and now opens his doors to speak to the world...
...in the eucharistic presence...
...His basic intention is to make explicit those ways which, according to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, Christ is truly present: in the believing community...
...He is the founder of Contemplative Outreach and a leading proponent of the Centering Prayer movement...
...Having said that, I must hasten to add that the books are only going to be useful for those who are predisposed toward an intense spiritual life and, more importantly, who have the leisure for its pursuit...
...Such criticism should be construed, not as dismissal, but as suggestion...
...One is reminded of the books of Columba Marmion...
...Both of these books are exemplary volumes for spiritual reading...
...The subtitle of the book provides a fair description of its approach and purpose...
...Keating tells us that contemplative prayer is a profound preparation for the liturgy and the liturgy, by turn, deepens contemplative prayer...
...in the proclamation of the Gospel...
...Lawrence S. Cunningham Thomas Keating, former abbot of Saint Joseph's monastery in Massachusetts, now resides at their Trappist daughter house in Snowmass, Colorado...
...His exegesis harkens back to the typological lectio of the cloister...
...How that circle is joined is not made clear...
...As an appendix to the whole there are some brief (alas, too brief) suggestions on how to create a more contemplative atmosphere for non-monastic liturgies...
...As an antidote to this overly intellec-tualized approach to prayer, Keating recommends the practice of "centering prayer" (the phrase is Thomas Merton's) , an approach to prayer found, most conspicuously, in the late medieval Cloud of Unknowing but with roots that go deep into the Christian spiritual tradition...
...Many hypothetical' 'persons in the pew'' might rightly object that their days do not have the leisure for the two periods of centering prayer...
...If there has ever been an example of the older tradition of monastic theology, this book is it...
...Simply stated, Keating argues that for fifteen hundred years of Christianity contemplative prayer was the normal goal of all spirituality...
...In Open Mind, Open Heart Keating sets forth a historical thesis which both justifies his apostolate and gives warrant for the belief that contemplative prayer is the patrimony of every baptized Christian...
...Although hardly as well known as Thomas Merton, Abbot Keating, nonetheless, has the reputation of being one of the most influential spiritual masters writing today...
...it follows a weekly pace...
...A good deal of the book consists of answers to specific questions (set out in italics) which, presumably, come from those who have learned this prayer technique from Keating and other proponents of this method like Basil Pennington, his fellow Cistercian...
...Very basically, centering prayer consists of utilizing a simple phrase or word (a Christian mantra, if you will) to "center" oneself until the word can be let go in order to rest in the silent presence of God...
Vol. 115 • May 1988 • No. 10
