The Rule of Benedict: Prologue (7/122)

4:05 PM Friday.

Today's reading is Prologue (7) – The Rule of Benedict, together with the equivalent sections in RB 1980 and Commentary for Benedictine Oblates.

Today's listening is from 41 minutes to the end of Christian Meditation: The Basic Teaching.

According to Gemini, "Centering Prayer (associated with Thomas Keating and Contemplative Outreach) and Christian Meditation (based on the teachings of John Main, OSB, and promoted by the WCCM) are widely considered the two primary or most prominent forms of non-discursive contemplative prayer taught in contemporary Benedictine and other Catholic retreat centers. They are often recognized as sister disciplines that emerged in the 1970s to make ancient monastic contemplative traditions accessible to modern laypeople."

Further, "While these two are dominant, they are not the only forms taught. They are part of a broader recovery of contemplation movement. Lectio Divina is arguably the most fundamental Benedictine practice (reading, meditating, praying, and contemplating Scripture), which is always taught alongside Centering Prayer and Christian Meditation. Benedictine centers may also teach the Jesus Prayer, Walking Meditation, or the Examen, but Keating and Main's methods are the most popular, structured, non-discursive (wordless) techniques offered for deepening prayer."

Here is an important November 2017 article from Father Thomas Keating: The Difference Between Centering Prayer and Dom John Main’s Christian Meditation | Contemplative Outreach, Ltd.

Also considered: Caffeinated Prayer and Religious Roasting: Catholic Monks and Laity Produce Good Coffee| National Catholic Register and Our Lady of Guadalupe Monastery.

End 5:53 PM.