Intimacy With God

  I love to read.  With Caleb around, I don't have nearly as much time to read as I have in years past, but I still take every chance I get.  One area in which I have focused my recent reading is prayer, and when I went to the abbey for the weekend I took a few books that I thought might inform and deepen my prayer life.  One of those books was Thomas Keating's Intimacy with God, which is an introduction to centering prayer.

  First of all, I'd say this book is highly readable.  It's about 150 pages, but it breezes by rather easily.  It's not a slog like many others.

  Secondly, I think you have to be open to the idea of centering prayer before you read it.  Centering prayer is, as I understand it, essentially silent meditation.  It's what I would call 'waiting on God.'  Centering prayer isn't necessarily something you do--it's a time to be, and to let God work.  There is usually a word or idea that centers you, but the essence of the prayer isn't a focus on that word.  The essence of the prayer is stilling the self before God.

  And when we stop to think about it, that's a really good thing.  God knows all of our thoughts and feelings and desires.  God made us and we are his.  God formed our inward parts and loves us deeply.  This same God holds the very universe in the palm of his hands.  This same God speaks planets into being & dwells in unapproachable light.  There is a certain point where we run out of words and need to be in awe before the majesty and awesomeness of God.

  Intimacy with God is an introduction into this type of prayer.  It's hard for most of us.  We have constant distractions and our ability to sit and be still is pretty low most days.  We aren't accustomed to discipline.  But for those interested in trying, Keating invites us in and guides us along the way.  Much of this is rooted in St. John of the Cross, who tells us that silence is the language in which God speaks, and it is in silence that we hear this.  So centering prayer helps us be silent, helps us be still, and endeavors to help us be present before God, emptying ourselves and letting God's presence fill us.

  Centering prayer isn't easy, especially at the start.  But I do believe that we will improve with effort, and the more we empty ourselves, the more we'll notice God moving in and around us, leading us ever forward.

  As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:31, Strive for the greater gifts.  And I will show you a still more excellent way.