A Coaching Session on Centering Prayer

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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James Finley (0:08)

Greetings, I'm Jim Finley.

Kirsten Oates (0:11)

And I'm Kirsten Oates.

James Finley (0:12)

Welcome to Turning to the Mystics.

Kirsten Oates (0:22)

Welcome everyone to season five of Turning to the Mystics, where we're turning to The Cloud of Unknowing, that was written by an anonymous author.

And this is the last episode of this season before we take questions from our listeners. And in this episode, Jim and I are gonna have a little coaching session, where Jim's going to share with me about this practice, and I'm gonna give it a try. So Jim, thank you for being here.

James Finley (0:53)

Sure, yes, good, yes. It's what I thought would be helpful here, is I'm gonna speak as if I'm the author of The Cloud of Unknowing.

And since in The Cloud, the author's clearly talking to a directee, someone who's been coming to him for direction. And so I wanna be speaking to you as if you're that person that I, as the author of The Cloud, is talking to as my directee.

And I'm assuming too that as I listened to you as the author of The Cloud, I discern that you've come to a very kind of mysterious place in your spiritual path. That for some time you've been in the special way of the life of devotional sincerity, of lexio divina, consolations of God, aspirations, living the Christ-like life.

I'm also assuming that from time to time, you've experienced this blind stirring of love, the spirit in your inmost being. It's not a stirring of devotion and reflective consciousness, but a kind of a stirring in the hidden center of yourself, where the indwelling presence of God is, and it kind of radiates out, and you can tell you're in the state of oneness with God. And that these fleeting stirrings are kind of hallowing and gracing your life. But what I also discern is you come to this singular way, that is, these touches of oneness or of communion. It's as you live now at that deep solitary core of your being, that is, there's a very deep desire, having tasted it, to abide there. And because this is so mysterious, or because it's so subtle, or so elusive, the author of The Cloud is saying, I'm going to suggest to you a way to pray.

To help establish you in a stance that offers the least resistance to that abiding.

And each of these mystics offers this in his or her own way. Fourth Mansion for Teresa, passage to a dark night in John of the Cross, for Guigo on the ladder, this point of this deep longing for God, the fourth one you can't consummate. So this is his strategy, or a way to kind of respond to this. And so this is not, say, through centering prayer, or anyone can practice this. And anyone who practices it, who's in the special way, they'll experience the graces of the special way as God's gifts. They'll say, I'm more patient, I'm more kind, I have more empathy, I have more. And well, they should. So the author of The Cloud is assuming the person experiences that. They're saying, yes, all that's true, but that's not really the essence of it. Is that what I've experienced is God's come to me, not in God's gifts, but like very God has access to me and has given to me. And I feel called in response to give myself in love to God, who's given to me with every breath and heartbeat. So this is a way to pray that establishes that stance.

And so I say to you then the suggestions are, the guidelines are to sit in a quiet place, to remind yourself you're in the presence of God, all about you and within you, closer to you than you are to yourself, as St. Augustine says.

And you're sitting there because you've experienced God accessing you in this unexplainable way with this deep communal stirring. And God is also the author of your desire to abide in it. And so with God's guidance in this quiet time with God, you're going to surrender yourself over to that stance of vulnerability to the abiding. Essentially what I'm telling you as the author to you, you sit very quietly and you recall the moment of the stirring. You're not feeling it now, but you remember it that moment, whenever it was.

And you know that deep down, it's always there because it's constantly there. And so in your intentional consciousness, you interiorly turn towards that inner interior place that stirred, and you lift it up and give yourself in a self-donating act of love to the infinite love of God that stirred it and stay there. As you sit there in that simple intention, because this is very subtle, really, very subtle, you'll notice thoughts arise, feelings let them, but your gaze is fixed on the singularity of this love. As soon as you can tell that a thought or a memory or a feeling has carried you off, you establish yourself in this stance by taking a word or a phrase, and you use the word to reground you in the purity of that simple intention, to give yourself in a self-donating act of love to this infinite love that's giving itself to you as your very life.