“The modern world lies under a pervasive sense of anguish, of being abandoned, or at least experiencing God as absent. Yet events that seem to turn our lives upside down and inside out are part of God's redemptive plan, not only for us, but for the world in which we live. God may be preparing a great awakening for the world, if God can find enough people to cooperate in this mysterious plan”.
~ Fr. Thomas Keating
“The best way to receive divine love is to give it away, and the more we pass on the more we increase our capacity to receive”.
Heart of the World
~ Thomas Keating
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself ”.
~ Luke 10:27
Our Logo
What the symbols relate to
Job Redeemer ~ Patient Waiting
Alpha and Omega Symbol of God ~ the beginning and the end
Cross Symbol of salvation
Flowers Symbol of the abundance of life; the resurrection
Circle Sign of ongoing process of the spiritual journey
The heart and soul of centering prayer is consent to God´s Indwelling Presence and action in our lives. The Alpha and Omega acknowledge that God always was and always will be omnipresent at the center of our being. The cross is a symbol of letting go or “dying” to our thoughts and commentaries.
In the letting go of attachment to thoughts, our false self gives way to the flowering of the new self. This is an ongoing process, bringing us deeper into Divine Intimacy. Like Job, our patient waiting and consenting are our gifts of gratitude to God.
This symbol has been seen in three different locations:
On a church in the ancient land of Uz referenced in the Bible as the place where Job lived. Scripture references to Uz are found in Job 1:1, Jeremiah 25:20 and Lamentations 4:21.
Etched on a Byzantine stone uncovered in an excavation in Jerusalem at the southern wall of the Old City near the Huldah Gates by the original stairs to the temple.
On the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves in the Galilee area. The symbol is seen above the main entrance of the church. The Monastery and the Basilica, completed in 1984, are run by and order of Benedictines based in Germany
“Everything is now in the mind and heart of God. Let us often go to be refreshed and to be encouraged by each other's fidelity to the Centering Prayer practice.“
~ Fr. Thomas Keating