Minnesota Contemplative Outreach

Quiet Nativity

1/7/2020

by Jody Reis Johnson

Each year, at the beginning of Advent, I pray for eyes to see the Holy Child wherever He may appear. I believe my first sighting came early this year, the first weekend of the season, at our Advent Centering Prayer Retreat. A middle-aged couple introduced themselves to the group on the first evening by telling us that they had moved here from another part of the country seeking better services for an elderly and disabled parent.

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Opening Words of the Retreat

11/11/2019

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Photo by Carol Quest

Gathered by Christine Eaton, attempting to capture the collective movement of the Spirit

From the introduction circle
on Friday evening:
Gratitude, peace, yes, wow
Welcome, blessings, compassion, joy
Oneness, kindness, stillness, spirit
Quiet, still, nature, seek silence
Open, listening, community, presence
Hope, grace, love, overflowing
Thank you, all is well, abundance
Multiplication, and Beloved

From Pamela's opening talk:
Spaciousness, freedom, chosen, known, goodness

And from the closing conversation:
Delight, courage, heart, strengthening
Faith, faithfulness, wisdom

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Prayer of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

11/10/2019

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Above all, trust in the slow work of God.

We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.

We should like to skip the intermediate stages.

We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new.

And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability--
and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.

Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.

Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.

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Retreat Lectio Divina: 2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5

11/10/2019

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Brothers and sisters:
May our Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father/Mother,
who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement
and good hope through God's grace,
encourage your hearts
and strengthen them in every good deed and word.

Finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us,
so that the word of the Lord may speed forward and be glorified,
as it did among you,
and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked people,
for not all have faith.

But the Lord is faithful;
God will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.
We are confident of you in the Lord that what we instruct you,
you are doing and will continue to do.

May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God
and to the endurance of Christ.

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Morning Dedication, by Pamela Begeman

11/10/2019

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I dedicate and consecrate this day
to the work and the will of God.
And may I remain
in the heart of the Mother.
Amen.

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A Return to Love

11/10/2019

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Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we subconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

~ Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love

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Pamela Begeman's Four Consents Presentation

11/10/2019

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Vestibule Practices from the 2019 Fall Retreat

11/10/2019

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In preparation for the "top-down" practice of Centering Prayer, we are encouraged to cultivate and integrate bottom up practices – movement, touch, breath, affirmation, sound. Trauma gets stuck in the body – “the issues are in our tissues” – so integrating bottom up with top down really helps us get "unstuck." In addition to Welcoming Prayer, we used the following two Vestibule Practices – Grounding in Gratitude and Grateful Heart - as introduced by Dr. Christine O'Brien at the 2019 annual conference of Contemplative Outreach International, which met in Denver in September.

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The Four Consents

11/10/2019

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From Pamela Begeman's presentation at the 2019 MN Contemplative Outreach Fall Retreat

Consent to our basic goodness of our being with all its parts. [Goodness]
Consent to accept the full development of our being by activating our talents and creative energies. [Participation]
Consent to accept our non-being and diminution of self that occurs through illness, ageing and death. [Diminishment]
Consent to be transformed (into Love). [Transformation]

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The First Consent: Goodness

11/10/2019

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(From Pamela Begeman's presentation at the 2019 MN Contemplative Outreach Fall Retreat)

Guidelines for Christian Life, Growth and Transformation

The fundamental goodness of human nature ... is an essential element of Christian faith. This basic core of goodness is capable of unlimited development; indeed, of becoming transformed into Christ and deified.
Our basic core of goodness is our True Self. The center of gravity is God. The acceptance of our basic goodness is a quantum leap in the spiritual journey.
God and our True Self are not separate. Though we are not God, God and our True Self are the same thing.

~ Thomas Keating, from Open Mind, Open Heart

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<<Previous

Quiet Nativity

Opening Words of the Retreat

Prayer of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Retreat Lectio Divina: 2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5

Morning Dedication, by Pamela Begeman

A Return to Love

Pamela Begeman's Four Consents Presentation

Vestibule Practices from the 2019 Fall Retreat

The Four Consents

The First Consent: Goodness

Presence & Action Blog

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