Forty years of studying contemplation has led Fr. Keating to this conclusion: "All of Christianity and especially the institutional aspects and structures of it need to be regularly renewed to ensure ...

These monks dreamed of taking the church’s rich, centuries-old tradition of contemplative prayer and distilling it into a simple, easily learned prayer that ordinary people could practice. They ...

A contemplative movement of Christian Centering Prayer is quietly (almost secretly) reviving religious life and faith in society. Here in the land of “the spiritual, but not religious,” and growing ...

Long ago, Daniel Berrigan told me a tragic story about being invited to speak to a packed church of cloistered nuns somewhere on the East Coast in 1965. They wanted him to read from his latest book of ...

The life of prayer is a process that has great advances and setbacks. There is no monotony when it comes to spending time with God. For those who commit themselves to pray, there is a daily adventure ...

First, I fidget. I cross and uncross my legs, fold and unfold my hands, bow and raise my head. I discover muscles I didn’t know I had, muscles that twitch, quiver, itch, and ache. So I waste several ...

October marks the end of the Discalced Carmelite Order’s celebration of the 500th anniversary of the birth of St. Teresa of Ávila. St. Teresa is a doctor of the Church and one of history’s greatest ...

I finally got around to reading the spiritual classic, The Cloud of Unknowing. Over the years, from time to time, I dipped into it but had never read it carefully, contemplatively. I was moved to do ...