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This page was last modified on Friday, November 07, 2008
Mid-term Study Questions
Spiritual Formation Lecture 6
September 30, 2008
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1. The heart of Spiritual formation is to teach and train people to follow the wisdom and instructions of Christ through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit—therefore, imitating Christ.
2. What does “imitation” mean? First it is the means of addressing some of the most basic struggles we face as human beings. What does it mean practically to follow Jesus?
3. Two great dangers in setting out to imitate Jesus are: 1) We might fail to see it as a privilege and a means of grace. Do you remember the joy and the privilege we used to have in imitating someone we love? 2) We might reduce this imitation to a limited set of actions (external conformity, and perfectly correct doctrine). It is possible to be as Isaiah 29:13 says: “lips close to God and heart far away from him.”
4. Christian formation seeks to foster a joyful apprenticeship in which we learn to live out the great invitations of Jesus, especially those concerning the life of prayer and love. According to Wilhoit “when we speak of imitation in formation, it is, as Dallas Willard has taught us, more akin to serving an apprenticeship with Jesus than merely mimicking selected actions of his”(Wilhoit, page 39). These are not mere laws to follow: Jesus invites us to take on his easy yoke: “Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for you souls. For my yoke fits perfectly and the burden I give you is light” (Matthew 11: 29-30 NLB).
5. Helmut Thielicke wrote: “The Christian stands, not under the dictatorship of a legalistic, “You ought,” but in the magnetic field of the Christian freedom, under the empowering of the “You may” (By the Holy Spirit).
6. See the handout of the invitations of Jesus. “Are you comfortable in calling Jesus’ commandments an “invitation”? See page 39. Jesus’ commands are two-sided and contain both the imperative and the means of accomplishing what is required.
7. The following are four spiritual commitments for a curriculum for Christlikeness.
a. Receiving: highlight our need to focus on Jesus and be open to His grace for spiritual formation. According to Wilhoit, “Christian spirituality’s concern that we learn from Christ and receive God enabling grace which separates it from the cultural assumption that any spirituality will do as long as we follow it sincerely” (Page 50).
b. Remembering describes the process of learning to remember, deep in our heart, who we are and, more important, whose we are.
c. Responding means that we realize that spiritual formation changes of character and action do not exist for our own private ends but to enable us to serve others and the world through love.
d. Relating, means fostering a deep longing for Christlikeness that takes place in community. According to Wilhoit “The deep longing for Christlikeness is a longing for God himself and the primary motivator for deep spiritual formation. Seeking Christlikeness is a lifelong endeavor that requires personal and corporate commitment to both active and passive stances” (page 51).
8. According to Wilhoit, six myths or false models of Spiritual Formation are:
a. Quick-fix: God not only is interested in changing us for the better, but doing it right now. They fail to see that spiritual formation is a lifelong calling.
b. Facts-only-model: People who believe spiritual growth is the taking in of spiritual truth. If I go to seminary I’ll become the Christian I need to be. Teaching and receiving the truth are the only means to spiritual growth.
c. Emotional model: This way of looking at things suggests that we are changed most profoundly when we have deep emotional experiences (spiritual experiences). They believe that change occurs primarily when our emotions are deeply stirred.
d. Conference or Revival model: These can have a powerful effect on people. There is certain validation for teaching if we see other people making decisions for spiritual renewal in their lives. However, individuals might be motivated to make resolutions that they are not mature enough to keep over the long run. They don’t make a very good source of nurture and guidance over the long haul.
e. Insight model: Insight into our thinking, motivation, and behavior is so important to spiritual growth yet that is only one aspect of our spirituality. When we give too much prominence to this model, it often ends up supporting a diseased introspection, actually impeding our spiritual life rather than contributing to it.
Faith model: All spiritual growth stems from surrender to God in faith, to let go and let God. But we have to do our part as well.
Spiritual Formation
Lecture 7 Study Notes – October 7, 2008
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Spiritual Disciplines
1. V. Raymond Edman in a book entitled “The Disciples of Life” writes: “Ours is an undisciplined age. The old disciplines are breaking down…Above all; the discipline of divine grace is derided as legalism or is entirely unknown to a generation that is largely illiterate in the Scriptures. We need the rugged strength of Christian character that can come only from discipline.”
2. What does the word “discipline” mean to you?
3. Discipline has such a negative connotation to it. It is associated with tyranny, external restraint, legalism, bondage, and of course punishment.
4. However, discipline is better understood as training or conditioning. In fact, Paul uses the metaphors of training in athletics, soldiering, and farming to illustrate the Christian life (see 1 Corinthians 9: 24-27; Ephesians 6: 10-18; 2 Timothy 2: 3-6). Christian Spirituality is not instantaneous or haphazard; it is developed and refined (see Boa page 76). At their best, many, if not most of our people are expecting to wake up one morning and find themselves instantly transformed magically over night into the image of Christ.
5. To get where we want to be spiritually (or even beyond what we thought was possible) we must: (1) depend on God, and (2) practice spiritual disciplines (training) in our lives.
Spiritual disciplines are intentional ways we open up space in our lives for the worship of God. Romans 12: 1 says: “Offer you bodies (or yourself) as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, this is your spiritual act of worship.” The disciplines are the ways in which we choose to deliberately open our lives up to God. According to Boa, “to ask the question ‘what would Jesus do?’ without practicing the habits we know he practiced is to attempt to run a marathon without prior training” (page 78). I like what he says in following that sentence:
“It is absurd to think that we could excel at any sport as golf or tennis without investing the needed time, training, and practice. But when it comes to living the Christian life, we suppose that we are doing well if we attend church and open a Bible once or twice a week. If believers expended (half the time), and energy in cultivating their spiritual lives as they are willing to invest in becoming reasonably skillful at any sport or hobby, the world would look with wonder at the power of the body of Christ” (page 78).
Spiritual Formation
Lecture 8 Study Notes – October 21, 2008
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1. Discipline by itself is laborious, boring, just plain drudgery without two things:
a. direction and
b. desire.
2. The direction is what Paul said in Romans 8: 29, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.” God’s eternal plan has been that every Christian be ultimately conformed to Christlikeness.
3. 1 John 3:2, “when he appears” we shall be like him is not just a vision. This is us sooner or later. However, we do need to have a vision of what Christ is to guide us along the way and give us a goal to reach for. There needs to be a clear vision of who we expect to be.
4. What vision of Christ guides your life? Love and holiness are two that I believe are paramount.
5. For a look at holiness, turn to Hebrews 12:14. According to Hebrews, our quest to experience God’s presence rests on our desire for holiness, because according to the writer, “without holiness no one will see the Lord.”
6. What is holiness?
7. How do we pursue holiness in order to see the Lord? 1 Timothy 4:7, “Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.”
8. The direction of a Christian’s life should be lifelong pursuit of holiness and love. In fact, I would say that love and holiness are two of the greatest, if not the greatest, characteristics of God. In fact, you might say that the spiritual disciplines are the means to sincere and genuine godliness. To become like Christ we have to know what direction or the way in which the Holy Spirit is seeking to take us.
9. The second thing that must be a part of Christian discipleship and Christian disciplines is a desire. In Boa, there is this illustration of playing the piano as being indicative of one’s desire to play (see page 78). It takes discipline but in order to discipline one’s self, there needs to be a strong desire.
10. Many Christians will never get past this point. They simply don’t have the desire to spiritually self-discipline their lives (see page 78). That’s were spiritual formation must start, in wanting to be like Jesus. The simple truth is that wanting to be like Jesus and keeping company with Jesus has a staying power that “shoulds” and “oughts” seldom have with us. I have to want to be like Jesus—I have to want badly to be like Him if I am ever going to maintain that course for very long in my life.
11. Over and over, Jesus asked about desires: Matthew 20:21, “What is it that you want?” “What do you want me to do for you?” (Matthew 20:32); “Do you want to get well?” (John 5:6). See the following examples of strong desire and requests of faith made by Jesus: Mark 1:40; Matthew 8:34; Matthew 8:25; Matthew 20:21; John 4:15; Mark 9:22; Mark 5: 18.
12. According to Adele Ahlberg Calhoun, in “Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices that Transform us,” Jesus doesn’t just magically grant our slightest wish, as a genie in a bottle. Instead, “He works with people allowing their desires to draw Him into the core conversations of life” (page 16).
13. Many of Jesus’ deepest interactions with people get at two things:
a. the true nature of people’s desires (what do they really want from Him?)
b. a spiritual practice that helps them make space for God in their lives.
14. The book of Acts has several ways first-century Christians made space for God as they faced difficulties.
a. Acts 2: 42 “They devoted themselves to the Apostle’s teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.”
b. Acts 3—the discipline of compassion
c. Acts 4—the discipline of witness, intercession, and detachment
d. Acts 7—the discipline of service
e. Acts 3:1; 10:9—the discipline of fixed-hour prayer
f. Acts 14:23—the discipline of fasting
g. Acts 15—the discipline of discernment
15. The Didache is good example of instruction given to early Christians. Things like how to grow in the love of God and each other, stewardship, chastity, prayer, fasting, humility, and the Lord’s Supper.
16. Turn in your Bibles to Matthew 11:28-30. What is it that makes Jesus’ yoke easy? Holy Spirit.
17. The Spiritual disciplines don’t replace the work of the Holy Spirit, but simply puts us in a place where we can begin to notice God and respond to His Holy Spirit working in our lives.
18. Someone once said: “They give the Holy Spirit space to brood over our souls.” Just as the Spirit hovered over the face of the deep in Genesis 1, so He hovers over us trying to breathe first air into our spiritually stale lives. The disciplines give Him a greater opportunity to work in my life. To do so I must will to allow myself to open up.
19. The Holy Spirit encourages us to open up, and desire God to be more a part of our lives. The Holy Spirit may direct your heart and desires along the lines of:
a. your needs
b. an area of struggle
c. desperation
d. barrenness in routines or relationships; and
e. concern with lack of motivation and what is not working in your life.
Where does your desire for this course and your education come from?
20. Ask yourself, “How do I want to or need to be with God?”
Look at the word “W O R S H I P” (Spiritual Formation Handout 3).
W- worship God
O - open myself to God
R - relinquish the false self and idols of my heart
S - share my life with others
H- hear the word of God
I - incarnate Christ’s love for the world
P - pray to God
For detailed information, see sermons for October 12 & 19.
Circle the one category that catches your attention.
Now, look at our handouts 5 & 6 (Table of Content, SD Handbook, handout 5); and Spiritual Disciplines and Desires, pages 11-13). Of all of these spiritual disciplines, which one draws you the most?
Adele Ahlberg Calhoun, M.A., Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, currently pastor of spiritual formation at Christ Church in Oak Brook, Illinois, “Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices that Transform
Us,” Intervarsity Press, 11/01/05, ISBN 9780830833306.
Spiritual Discipline Handout
Spiritual Formation
Lecture 9 Study Notes – October 27, 2008
printable notes
1. Prayer – According to Richard Foster, “Prayer catapults us unto the frontier of the spiritual life.” (Celebration of Discipline page 32) Of all the Spiritual Disciplines, prayer is the most central because it ushers us into a perpetual communion with God.
2. Prayer is a vast subject, a lot more complex and comprehensive than our small time here allows. Look at the table of contents on prayer in “The Spiritual Disciplines Handbook.” In addition, there are so many books, readings, and thoughts about prayer that we could occupy ourselves for a life-time studying prayer.
3. What is it? “Talking to God” is probably the simplest, and maybe the most naïve understanding of prayer. I think most people in our churches just believe that prayer is sending God a “divine S.O.S.” I also think it is one reason why our lives are in such turmoil, and our churches are in such a spiritual mess. We don’t understand what prayer truly is, in other words, prayer is only something we use when we get in trouble or when we need a “divine favor” from the “Big Man upstairs.” (I despise that kind of reference to GodL)
4. However, look at Genesis 28:12 for this interesting understanding about the two-way going and coming between heaven and earth. Our people understand that prayer is talking to God, but they don’t really understand prayer as listening to God.
5. Therefore, before we can teach our people to pray we need to teach them what prayer is! Because prayer is a learned discipline, we need to spend time in teaching them what it is that they are seeking.
6. Richard Foster has a good analogy about the nature of prayer. He says that prayer is the key to the heart of God. Or, like a window into the heart of God, see “Pray as You Can” by Jean Gill. Read page 1 of Foster’s book on Prayer: “Finding the Heart’s True Home.”
7. Another analogy of prayer is the power switch of one’s spiritual life. It allows the grace of God to flow from the creator to his creation. Just like electricity flows throughout our house, the power of God flows through our lives as we pray. Either way, prayer is the key to the heart of God. And if you want to follow the analogy further, you might say that the door is Jesus. God provides a key into his very heart. He knows that we are blind, stubborn, and stupid so He provides us a way into His heart.
8. However, it is real important to realize that prayer comes not from gritting our teeth with determination (even though determination is at times important to have)—it is about falling in love with God and seeking our lover. Therefore, great literature on prayer is very erotic (see Foster’s book on Prayer page 3).
9. Another author writing on prayer and love says: “Prayer is essentially…a love affair with God, not schemes or techniques or ways or methods of prayer, but the most direct, open approach of each one of us as a person to God our creator, redeemer, and sanctifier…we are seeking God himself, not thoughts about him, nor about ourselves in relation to him.”
10. Love (both our love of God and the love of our hearts concern) is the true language of prayer. Prayer is a beam of love aimed at the heart of God. I will never turn down anyone praying for me, but I would rather have a handful of people praying for me who love me, than three or four times the number praying for me that don’t really care that much about me.
11. Douglas Steere defines prayer as man’s “dominant desire,” his ruling passion, and therefore seeing the whole of man’s desires as his prayer whether he acknowledges it as such or not.” (page 67, Dimensions of Prayer, by Douglas Steere) For the Christian at least, think about the prayer implications for Romans 8:26-27 if Steere’s observations are true.
12. What does prayer do? One word, “everything!” Paul tells the Philippians not to be anxious about anything, “but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”(Philippians 4:6) James tells us that the “effective prayers of a righteous man can accomplish much.” (James 5:16) Why? Because prayer brings us into a “chamber of loving scrutiny” created by cross. (Steere, Dimensions of Prayer, page 44)
13. John Wesley wrote: “God does nothing but in answer to prayer.” Wesley would spend every morning in prayer. When asked about his busy schedule and finding time to pray. He wrote: “I have so much business that I cannot get on without spending three hours in prayer.” (Foster, page 34)
14. Richard Foster says: “We could change the whole nation...if thousands of us would constantly throw a cloak of prayer around everyone in circle of nearness.” (p. 45)
15. E.M. Bounds says: “units of prayer combined, like drops of water, make an ocean which defies resistance.” ( E.M. Bounds quoted by R. Foster, p45) Bounds also writes about the Preacher and his sermon by saying: “Prayer, with its manifold and many-sided forces, helps the mouth to utter the truth in its fullness and freedom. The preacher is to be prayed for, the preacher is made by prayer. The preacher’s mouth is to be prayed for, his mouth is to be opened and filled by prayer. A holy mouth is made by praying, by much praying; a brave mouth is made by praying, by much praying. The church and the world, God and heaven, owe much to Paul’s mouth; Paul’s mouth owed its power to prayer.” (The Complete works of E. M. Bounds on Prayer, page 471) He continues by writing: “Praying makes the preacher a heart preacher. Prayer puts the preacher’s heart into the preacher’s sermon; prayer put the preacher’s sermon into the preacher’s heart…. A prepared heart is much better than a prepared sermon. A prepared heart will make a prepared sermon.” (page 471) Prayer is the power switch of the preacher’s life and ministry. It is the power switch of the Christian’s spiritual life.
16. Prayer is also an act of self-surrender. Steere writes: “To come near God is to change. If my prayer is real…I must decrease and he must increase in me. I dare not stay as I am and come near to such a love as His.”
17. My favorite quote about prayer and coincidences is by William Temple—Archbishop of Canterbury. “When I pray, coincidences happen, when I do not, they don’t.”
18. What are different varieties of prayer?
a. Intercessory Prayer—praying for others, reaches its highest goal when it is intended to bring in the Kingdom of God or accomplish God’s will. In fact, accomplishing God’s will is the purpose of prayer.
Christ is our best example of intercessory prayer. The work he began on earth He continues for all time. (Heb 9:24 and Heb. 7:25; also see Romans 8:33-34 “who also intercedes for us.” Life-changing Power of Prayer by T.W Hunt pg. 58) However, believers are also taught to pray for one another. (Jas. 5:16; p.59)
Two results of our prayer of intercession.
One, it places the intercessor in the position of Christ Himself. In prayer as we pray for one another, we come to know the mind of Christ. Persistence pays off, and slowly we begin to know the will of God.
Second, it helps secure the will of God. God could do His work without us, but He chooses not to. It leads us to identify with God’s purpose and then to identify with God himself.
Hunts guidelines for prayers of intercession.
1. Ask in the Spirit.
2. Ask according to his will
3. Ask with the mind.
4. Ask in Jesus name.
5. Ask while abiding in Christ.
6. Ask in faith.
7. Ask in humility.
8. Ask in sincerity.
9. Ask in perseverance.
b. Breath Prayer—it is a form of contemplative prayer that links prayer to the act of breathing. The theology of the breath prayer is that it reminds each of us that each breath is a breath that God has given us, and God’s Spirit is nearer to us than our own breath. The Jesus Prayer is a prime example of this. It combines “Son of David, have mercy on me” (Luke 18:39) with “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” (Luke 18:13) Breathing in, you pray, “Jesus, son of David,” breathing out you pray, “have mercy on me a sinner.”
Another way of doing this is breathing in the spiritually good things of God and breath out the sinful things of our hearts. Make a list of good and bad things. To me, it’s also a way of centering my thoughts.
c. Contemplative Prayer—represents a restful receptivity to the Trinity that enables me to always be with God just as I am. It is a receptive openness to God that is a way of waiting with a heart awake to God’s presence and love. It is the kind of prayer that trusts and rests in the presence of the Holy Spirit deep in our own spirit (see handout from Handbook of Christian Disciplines, page 211). It is simply a wordless, openness, to the presence of God. Psalms 131 is a wonderful scripture to illustrate this concept. It is also an invitation to come and “abide with Christ.” Look at Colossians 1:26-27, Paul writes:
(1) of the saving gospel to those without Christ, and
(2) the “mystery of the gospel” to the saints, which is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Contemplation puts you more in a position to understand what it means to have “Christ in you.”
Contemplation prayer is container discipline that includes a number of ways of being with Jesus in prayer: centering prayer and breath prayer just to name a few. (Adele Calhoun, page 212) Calhoun says it is not so much a mystical presence but a restful experience of Christ in me.
Spiritual Formation
Lecture 10 Study Notes – November 4, 2008
printable notes
c. Continued from Lecture 9 - Contemplative prayer and really prayer itself is expressed in Ephesians 3:16-19. It is really what we are moving toward in our spiritual life.
d. Silence and Solitude—According to John of the Cross “silence is God’s first language.” And silence is the normal context in which contemplative prayer takes place. An additional discipline that all the other disciplines feed off as well is solitude. According to Calhoun, solitude is the scheduling of uninterrupted time in a distraction-free environment that we experience isolation and we are alone with God. Psalms 46 says: “Be still, and know that I am God.” Being still, pausing and understanding that God is around us. Many people are hurrying around with such noise and furry that they are never going to know when God is whispering to them. (1 Kings 19:12) These two disciplines are the context, or as Calhoun call’s them, the “container disciplines” for the practice of the other disciplines.
Just about every spiritual tradition that holds to the belief of the transformation of the human heart claims that silence and solitude in the presence of God is a key to spiritual transformation. (Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, by Cynthia Bourgeault, page 9)
The discipline of silence and solitude is the effort to free oneself from the addition to and the distraction of noise so that I can be totally present to the Lord; to open myself to God in the place beyond words. See handout on silence page 106, Calhoun. The first thing we do when we walk into a quiet and lonely house is, do what? Turn on the T.V., radio, or music player! Why, because we don’t like it so quiet. Noise becomes a means by which we can distract ourselves from our problems, difficulties, limitations and the loneliness of being human. It can become a coping mechanism that helps us avoid our situation in life. Being a Christian that is interested in being transformed into the image of Christ it is hard being intentional about our spiritual transformation, if we keep our false and sinful self hidden by noise, food, sensuality, and denial. Calhoun says: “Silence is a regenerative practice of attending and listening to God in quiet, without the (distraction), interruption, and noise. Silence provides freedom from speaking as well as from listening to words or music.” (reading, page 107).
Silence and solitude are necessary for our emotional well-being and our spiritual growth. Because:
(1) We need to discover who we are, and become aware of our true self. In Christ Jesus we need to be able to be comfortable with whom we are.
There is story a clergyman who went to see Dr. Carl Jung. The clergyman was on the verge of nervous breakdown because of the long hours and the stress of the job. Jung told him to go home, work only 8 hours a day and sleep only 8 hours a day, while spending the remaining time in quietness of his study, alone. He went home, worked 8 hours, ate supper with his wife, informed her as to what he was doing and went to his study. Once in his study he relaxed, listened to his music, read a novel, and generally passed the time fairly well. He did the same for the next couple of days and came back to Jung complaining that he was just as bad off.
Jung asked him to tell what he did during this alone time, and he explained he listen to Mozart, read a Thomas Mann novel, among other things to keep himself occupied. But Jung looked at him and remarked, “You don’t understand, I don’t want you to be alone with Mozart, Thomas Mann, or any other musician or author you might listen to or read. I want you to be all alone with yourself.” To which the Rev. replied, “Oh, I cannot think of any worse company.” To this Jung replied: “And yet his is the self you inflict on other people 12-16 hours a day.” Isn’t it terrible to inflict on others the person that you yourself cannot stand to be alone in silence with? (The Other side of Silence: AGuide to Christian Meditation by Morton Kelsey, page 84)
(2) Silence and solitude can also be an escape from the burden of having to listen to the noise and chatter of everything and everyone around us, so that we can regroup and recoup our emotional and physical energy.
(3) For the Christian, silence and solitude can become the fertile ground for faith, hope, and love, and a sanctuary for the presence of God.
(4) As ministers (laity and clergy both) we can become so busy and in so much of a hurry doing things for God that we can become impoverished spiritually along the way. Who is supposed to be the minister of the minister?
See God-given fruit in both handouts on silence and solitude. How can we as Christians go about practicing these two disciplines? See Practices included in both handouts as well.
e. Centering Prayer – it is a form of contemplative prayer where the pray-er seeks to quiet scattered thoughts and desires in the still center of Christ’s presence. In centering prayer, the goal is to so dwell in Christ that the fruit of this dwelling begins to show up in our lives. See God-given fruit on Centering Prayer handout, page 206, for some of those fruits. There may or may not be immediate results, in fact centering prayer may “do” nothing for you at the moment. But according Calhoun “as you move out into the busyness of life, you begin to notice that something has shifted. Your quiet center in Christ holds. The words of Isaac of Stella speaks volumes about centering prayer: “May the Son of God who is already formed in you, grow in you, so that for you He will become immeasurable, and that in you He will become laughter, exaltation, the fullness of joy which no one can take from you.” (Calhoun, page 209)
f. At the center of all meditative forms of prayer is “kenosis” or “self-emptying.” Stay with me on this. In fact, kenosis is at the heart of Jesus’ teachings when he said: “Whosoever would save his life will lose it and whoever loses his life will find.” (Matthew 16:25) We usually interpret this as “dying to self” especially the sinful old self that Paul refers to in Romans 6.
g. However, in Christian prayer meditation, it goes deeper than just this, or at least how we interpret Jesus’ or Paul’s words as the dying of our sinful self. Because in all forms of prayer meditation we participate in the death of Christ. Someone once said “Every time we meditate, we participate in the death of Christ.” According to Cynthia Bourgeault (Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, page 81) in prayerful meditation:
“We simply entrust ourselves to a deeper aliveness, gently pulling the plug on that tendency of the mind to want to check in with itself all the time. In this sense, meditation is mini-rehearsal for the hour of our death, in which the same thing will happen. There comes a moment when the ego is no longer able to hold us together, and our identity is cast to the mercy of Being itself (God). This is the existential experience of ‘losing one’s life’.”
h. But as in Jesus’ death there is a resurrection and we awake to a newness of life. Something has held us, and carried us. And this same something, we gradually come to trust, will hold and carry us at the hour of our death. To know this—really to know this—is the beginning of resurrection life.” (page 81) It is as Jesus says “losing your life only to find it again.”
i. However, there is more to prayer meditation than just rehearsing for our own eventual death. Because self-emptying was at the heart of everything that Jesus did. Turn in your Bibles to the Letter of Philippians and read 2:9-16. It is self-emptying that brings Jesus to his earthly form and it is self-emptying (giving of Himself on the cross) that leads Him out of this world, returning Him to the glory of the right hand of the Father. In a similar way, we find that by giving ourselves to others and to God, we empty ourselves of our energy and love, and the flow of God’s life giving force or love works its way through our lives. So that by giving ourselves in love to God and to others we receive that love that we desire so much in our daily lives. The energy of love flows full circle as we give and receive God’s grace. It is love made in the process of giving itself away. Meditation in general and centering prayer in specific is a process of self-emptying, dying to self, giving, loving, and being born again in love.