Blog Posts - Minnesota Contemplative Outreach

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

11/10/2019

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.

Morning Dedication, by Pamela Begeman

11/10/2019

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.

A Return to Love

11/10/2019

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

Pamela Begeman's Four Consents Presentation

11/10/2019

Vestibule Practices from the 2019 Fall Retreat

11/10/2019

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.

The Four Consents

11/10/2019

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]

The First Consent: Goodness

11/10/2019

(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

The Second Consent: Participation

11/10/2019

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

The fundamental practice for healing the wounds of the false-self system is to fulfill the duties of our job in life. This includes helping people who are counting on us. If prayer gets in the way, there is some misunderstanding. Some devout persons think that if their activities at home or their job get in the way of praying, there is something wrong with their activities. On the contrary, there is something wrong with their prayer.
~ Thomas Keating, The Mystery of Christ

The Third Consent: Diminishment

11/10/2019

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

"Perhaps it is easy enough to understand that God can be grasped in and through every life. But, can God be found in and through every death, every diminishment? This is what disconcerts us, and yet, this is what we must learn to recognize. […] The forces of diminishment are possibilities. Their number is vast. Their forms infinitely varied. Their influence constant. There is a time of growth, and a time of diminishment in the lives of each one of us. All of these attitudes spring from the same inner orientation of the mind. From a single law, which combines the two-fold movement of the natural personalization of a man, a woman, and their supernatural, depersonalization in Christ."
~ Teilhard de Chardin

The Fourth Consent: Transformation

11/10/2019

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

"Since [Centering Prayer] is not only pleasant, but also purifying, do not be surprised by the ups and downs of our subjective experience and just accept what happens. This is when you truly consent in practice. You are giving away any control whatsoever over the results of what you are doing. It is allowing that consent to be purified by the Spirit, who will send into your life inwardly and outwardly the people, teaching, or trials that you need. The bottom line … is to place all our trust in God and in [God's] determination to bring this about because of [God's] immense, gratuitous love for us."
~ Thomas Keating, God is Love: The Heart of All Creation