We are kept from the experience of Spirit because our inner world is cluttered with past traumas . . . As we begin to clear away this clutter, the energy of divine light and love begins to flow through our being.
Thomas KeatingRead
One of the values of centering prayer is that you are not thinking about God during the time of centering prayer so you are giving God a chance to manifest. In centering prayer there are moments of peace that give the psyche a chance to realize that God may not be so bad after all. God has a chance to be himself for a change.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Centering prayer allows individuals to quiet their thoughts, creating space for a deeper connection with God.
In this quote, Thomas Keating emphasizes the importance of centering prayer as a practice that transcends active thinking about God. By entering a state of peaceful quietude, practitioners open themselves up to experiencing God's presence authentically, rather than through their mental constructs. This practice can lead to profound realizations about the nature of God and one's relationship with the divine.
Themes
Centering PrayerPeaceSpiritualityGodMeditation
In practice
Example use cases
During a spiritual retreat, I shared a reflection on centering prayer, using this quote to illustrate the power of silence in connecting with God.
More from Thomas Keating
All quotes →The acceptance of all that God has given us and the willingness to let it go - to give it back to him at a moment's notice - that's true human freedom.
Thomas KeatingRead
We rarely think of the air we breathe, yet it is in us and around us all the time. In similar fashion, the presence of God penetrates us, is all around us, is always embracing us.
Thomas KeatingRead
Only when we can accept God as he is can we give up the desire for spiritual experiences that we can feel.
Thomas KeatingRead
For human beings, the most daunting challenge is to become fully human. For to become fully human is to become fully divine.
Thomas KeatingRead
To become who we are as creatures made in the image and likeness of God, we have to be nothing and everything at once, since this is what God is. ... If we accept who we are, we are manifesting God and radiating Christ. The latter unfolding of the divine life within us does not need to go anywhere _x000D_ or do anything special.
Thomas KeatingRead
Similar quotes
Before we go to our knees to receive the Baptism of Fire, let me beg of you to see to it that your souls are in harmony with the will and purpose of the Holy Spirit whom you seek.
William BoothRead
In prayer, we stand where angels bow with veiled faces. There, even there, the cherubim and seraphim adore before that selfsame throne to which our prayers ascend. And shall we come there with stunted requests and narrow, contracted faith?
Charles SpurgeonRead
God answers all true prayer, either in kind or in kindness.
Adoniram JudsonRead
Precisely where I feel my poverty is where I discover God's blessing.
Henri NouwenRead
To live a spiritual life we must first find the courage to enter into the desert of our loneliness and to change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude. The movement from loneliness to solitude, however, is the beginning of any spiritual life because it it is the movement from the restless senses to the restful spirit,l from the outward-reaching cravings to the inward-reaching search, from the fearful clinging to the fearless play.
Henri NouwenRead
Real prayer is union with God, a union as vital as that of the vine to the branch.
Mother TeresaRead