I eagerly anticipate returning To Bethany Spirituality center this week to resume the Wisdom School Experience with Cynthia Bourgeault and the crowd from the eastern seaboard.  It will be our second gathering. 

The first was one of the most memorable experiences I have participated in.  I went with some trepidation because I had not been practicing Centering Prayer as much as I had wanted and felt like I might be  a bit behind everyone else.  The bottomline is no one but you and God knows what happens to you when you “sit” and we were not there to dissect our practice or share our practice experience.  

We came for all sorts of reasons.  What we experienced was something very special and unique.  From all sorts of backgrounds and geographic locations we spent five days living the Benedictine Rule  of prayer, mindful work, healthy eating, learning and silence while living in community.  Guided by very wise and articulate Cynthia, we looked at our relationship with  God in a very different way.  God is within us and not outside of us and the way to God is through quiet centering prayer–Surrendering to God, resting in the arms of God, and trusting that God knows best what we need and will sort it all out if we just allow and Be.  Easier said than done sometimes.
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We explored the concept of Perennial Philosophy–”There is no God, but God”. The One who comes to us in the way that we need to see or hear, accepting of all.  We explored the idea of the spiritual journey that all of us on earth are on–but how we are all in different states of awareness about that journey and at different places along the path and that it is all ok.  We practiced chanting and I learned how physical that kind of music making can be–effecting every cell of the body.  We started to learn Turning prayer–something we will return to this next time. 

 

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