Active Meditations for Contemplative Prayer

by Thomas Keating

This beautiful gift book contains over 200 selections from the wisdom of several of Father Keating's most popular and significant works, including the best selling 'Open Mind, Open Heart'.

Genres: Spirituality

144 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1997

About the author

Keating entered the Cistercian Order in Valley Falls, Rhode Island in January, 1944. He was appointed Superior of St. Benedict's Monastery, Snowmass, Colorado in 1958, and was elected abbot of St. Joseph's Abbey, Spencer, Massachusetts in 1961. He returned to Snowmass after retiring as abbot of Spencer in 1981, where he established a program of ten-day intensive retreats in the practice of Centering Prayer, a contemporary form of the Christian contemplative tradition.

He is one of three architects of Centering Prayer, a contemporary method of contemplative prayer, that emerged from St. Joseph's Abbey in 1975. Frs. William Menninger and Basil Pennington, also Cistercian monks, were the other architects.
n 1984, Fr. Thomas Keating along with Gustave Reininger and Edward Bednar, co-founded Contemplative Outreach, Ltd., an international, ecumenical spiritual network that teaches the practice of Centering Prayer and Lectio Divina, a method of prayer drawn from the Christian contemplative tradition. Contemplative Outreach provides a support system for those on the contemplative path through a wide variety of resources, workshops, and retreats.
Fr. Keating currently lives at St. Benedict's Monastery in Snowmass, Colorado.

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Little nuggets of wisdom reminding us how to fully experience union with God by literally letting go. "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20

[Mark Matzeder · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short collection of excerpts from Fr. Keating's work whets one's appetite for further investigation.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I read a book like this, it makes me wish I was a Catholic. The book is a compilation of little quotes from theologian Keating's earlier books. In the forward to the book, Gustave Reininger writes that this book can be thought of as a "minute book," something Keating suggested, a book that one can take along in a pocket or a purse, "a series of short readings---a sentence or two, or at most a short paragraph---from your favorite spiritual writers or from your own journal that reminds you of your commitment to Christ and to contemplative prayer."




Here's one sample, originally from Keating's Heart of the World: "Vulnerability means to be hurt over and over again without seeking to love less, but more."

[Sher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book to be - not a selection of gathas or short saying for meditation, but instead many quotes from Keating's various books. Still, this is fine, if you would like a broad selection of his thought regarding contemplative prayer. Also may point you to his works you would like to read in full.