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You are invited
to attend Centering Prayer Tuesday mornings at
9:15 am in the Upper Room of the Education
Building, behind Saint Ferdinand Church. |
The Centering program
starts on the 3rd Tuesday of September
and ends the Tuesday before Memorial Day (no group
Centering Prayer in summer.)Attend any or all
programs as your schedule allows, and please arrive
a few minutes early in order to be settled and
seated by 9:15AM.
The morning starts with a short prayer called
lectio divina, which means "divine reading."
This is an ancient Christian practice of praying the
scriptures. During lectio divina, the seeker listens
to a passage of the Bible with the "ear of the
heart," as if in conversation with God.
The prayer of lectio divina includes a moment of
reading the scripture (lectio), a moment of
reflecting on the scripture (meditatio), a
moment of responding to the scripture (oratio)
and a period of resting in the scripture (contemplatio). The
aim of this prayer is to nourish and deepen our
relationship with the Divine.
The last part of
lectio divina is sometimes called Centering Prayer,
and historically it was called the Prayer of Quiet.
Its aim is to calm the mind of unnecessary activity,
so that the presence of God can be more easily felt.
The goal is to sit quietly in the comfort and
presence of God, focusing solely on God. The total
time in prayer is about 20 minutes. A recorded
enrichment program follows the prayer and ends by
11AM. This prayer practice prepares us to eventually
receive the gift of contemplation, which is a more
habitual awareness of God in everyday life; where
there is a more noticeable presence of the gifts of
the Holy Spirit in our actions and thoughts. Here,
we finally experience God (and not ourselves) as the
center of our life. This is when we realize that all
is in God, and God is in all. If bad weather or road
conditions cause a closing in the Seneca Valley
School District, Centering Prayer will also be
cancelled on that day. Centering Prayer also does
not meet on the Tuesdays prior to Thanksgiving Day,
Christmas Day and New Years Day.
Off for the summer. Returning September 20, 2011
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