An easy, down-to-earth and powerful read on centering prayer

books:

	• Invitation to Love: The Way of Christian Contemplation Thomas Keating Element Books, Rockport, Massachusetts, 1992 - 151 pages average customer review:based on 11 reviews
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highly recommended

A Great Book To Own

This is a book I've read three times now. I plan to read it again once I get it back from my brother. It is a guidebook and is easy to read. I highly recommend this book if you are looking to deepen your prayer life.

Do you hunger for deeper prayer? Read this book.

This is one book I would recommend most highly to anyone who thinks about learning more about prayer and hungers for more. The subtitle, "The Way of Christian Contemplation" should not frighten anyone because it is not "new" nor is it just a "technique." Rather, it follows from the best tradition of the church, including John of the Cross, Theresa of Avila and others. Fr. Keating's writing is simple, clear, using examples we can all identify with. No one needs a theology degree for this, just a hunger to learn about deeper prayer. At 140 pages, Keating give a great introduction....and in fact lots more than just a start.

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An easy, down-to-earth and powerful read on centering prayer

Fr Thomas Keating has written a book that gleans from among the best of the Church's contemplative resources such as John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Cloud of Unknowing and presents it afresh with a gentle and winsome voice to today's would-be contemplatives. For many who find some of the deep classics on prayer such as those mentioned somewhat dense or obscure will find much to resonate with in 'Invitation to Love'. The method of Centering Prayer which he has helped develop and promote for our generation is a simple and rewarding way of prayer if one sets aside regular time for it. It is together with faithful practice and spiritual growth that one comes to grasp more deeply what is written here. However, even if one is a newbie to Centering Prayer or treads a different prayer path, there is much that one can relate to and find helpful such as his thoughts on the famous 'night of the sense' and 'night of the spirit' which are commonly encountered in one's prayer as one advances. Familiarity with such experiences helps one persist and let God take us to a deeper level of union with him.

Then, there is that beautiful story about Bernie, a real person of great love and generosity, who lives his life to the hilt in a monastery and when the time comes for him to let go, he drops everything in less than a moment's notice. It's an inspiring story of how true prayer makes a person fully human, fully alive!

This is one of the best books on prayer I have ever read - easy, down-to-earth and powerful. Highly recommended! But be sure to read 'Open Mind Open Heart' before reading this for a good grasp of Centering Prayer, which is the backbone of Keating's thoughts on prayer.

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The "Way"

Other than the Bible itself, no other writings available offer sincere seekers a more illumined path to our Creator where we may dwell in His Truth. I thank God for Thomas Keating!

Living An Ordinary Life In Extraordinary Love

Father Keating's invitation is to live an ordinary life with extraordinary love..to exchange self limiting and ineffectual programs for happiness for a program of joy centered on our own truth and focused not inward but outward to others, to community and to the world. Addressed to Christians who may have used church and religion ineffectually in the pursuit of happiness, it also offers a compassionate, understanding and wise approach for all of us to help recognize these ineffectual programs for happiness within our lives. It offers us a practice which can help us exchange these programs for something that brings us into greater wholeness and fulfillment. It took me quite a few years in the practice to finally truly appreciate this wonderful teaching so if at first it doesn't connect, make the commitment to truth, beauty and service..then pick it up again..especially if you feel you have hit a wall in your spiritual journey.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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