Eileen

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conversation with God, gratitude, heaven, life and death, rest in peace, sadness, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I’ve been sitting for some time now trying to concentrate on this almost daily task. It seems impossible after reading the news of my friend, Eileen Peters. She passed on the day before yesterday to what will certainly be a glorious reward for her life here on earth. Her fidelity to her husband Dave, her seven grown children and many “grands” — the last being born a day before she left us — had prepared her for the welcome that must have greeted her. I can imagine her lively conversation with God; she was used to that while here. I can see her walking right in and making herself comfortable in her new surroundings. It was always hard to keep up with her on a hike so I presume she is settled by now.

It was Dave’s weekly blog about the process of her illness over the past year that allows this feeling of lightheartedness in me. So many images of connection with Eileen fill my mind that there is no room yet for the sadness that will surely come as we gather to pray together in gratitude for her. The recounting of her courage and willingness grounded in the love that surrounded and sustained her was so vivid with gratitude that it is impossible not to understand something deeper about life and death and new life that I have not known before.

I have no doubt that she rests in peace now and I give thanks for lessons learned and friendship shared. Amen.

Rev. Thomas Keating

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A Sleep of Prisoners, Bartimaeus, breathing, centering prayer, Christopher Fry, Father Thomas Keating, Jesus, letting go, Mark, prayer, presence of God, rest in peace, see, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I just read the gospel story of the blind man, Bartimaeus. (MK 10: 46-52). My favorite line has Bartimaeus answering the question Jesus had put to him when he called out for attention. Actually both lines of the exchange are crucial. Jesus asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” to which Bartimaeus answers, “Master, I want to see.” Upon reflection one might ask why Jesus needed to pose that question as it must have been obvious that the man was blind. It certainly wasn’t a trivial request. The fact that Jesus asked it, however, might move us to consider some deeper content in our own prayer.

Does our prayer sound like a Christmas list sometimes, asking God to fix things in our lives so that we will be more comfortable than we are? Surely we are called to ask for help to live good lives and have compassion for others but in these troubled times when events and world conditions are now “soul size” (see A Sleep of Prisoners by Christopher Fry) we must be called to new ways of participating in life.

Father Thomas Keating died on Thursday (10/25) at the age of 95 years. Fr. Thomas is known to many as the father of the Centering Prayer movement and a spiritual giant who personified the best of a life of contemplative prayer. I was privileged to encounter Father Thomas twice in person and found him to be delightfully down-to-earth while also shining like the sun from the inside. His deep practice of prayer was evident in the joy with which he lived and in the deeply wise, carefully chosen words he used to speak of spiritual things. It was clear that his way of prayer was deeper than words, however, and leaned in, always listening, to the heartbeat of God.

Centering prayer is like that, Fr. Thomas would say. It consists of sitting down and “consenting to the presence of God,” returning, when we recognize that we are thinking, to just being in the Presence, letting go of everything else. Just like breathing, this kind of prayer gets patterned into us and becomes an anchor for life. Hundreds of thousands of people the world over practice this form of prayer each day and are united now in feelings of happiness and sadness at the same time: sadness to have lost the physical presence of Father Thomas in this realm but, oh so happy to think of his joyful passage into the next! May he truly rest in peace!