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2012

Day of Centering Prayer

May 19, 2012
Sangre de Cristo Center in Santa Fe

 

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An Interview with Susan Rush by The Mandala Center

1. Your retreat is called "Embodying the Silence". This is an interesting title. Can you tell us why you chose that title and how it reflects the content of your retreat?
When we first start out on the contemplative journey, most of us are so amazed at how busy we are in our mind. As we traverse that inner soil we also realize the wisdom that the body holds for us. The contemplative journey is about Silence. This silence is all pervading. The stillness of the body can facilitate the stilling of the discursive mind.

2. I understand you use Centering Prayer in your program. Please tell us how you define Centering Prayer.
Centering Prayer is a discipline of intentional silence. It is a prayer of consent, a prayer of surrender, a prayer in secret leading to Contemplative Prayer which is pure gift awaiting all of us. And we are all built for contemplation.

3. Tell us a little about your own personal journey -and how you were led to facilitate this subject matter.
I was a searcher. I knew I wanted a more intimate relationship with God. The grace of Centering Prayer found me two decades ago. I am grateful and I appreciate sharing this with others. I believe that consenting to God's presence and action within deepens the prayer for all others. There is a oneness that I believe we can experience as a fruit of this prayer.

4. How is yoga used in your retreat and how does it relate to prayer?
Under Jim Reale's gentle guidance, we use yoga or Meditative Movement as a vehicle to welcome the body, as a vestibule into our prayer time.

5. You guide participants in "chanting" practices. Tell us about how you use chanting and why.
For me, chanting helps me quiet my mind. We use chanting as a devotion, as an active prayer sentence and as a vestibule into our prayer time. Contemplative chanting and psalmody is one of those hidden treasures that we can use to assist us in remembering those contemplative waters throughout our daily lives.

6. What would you tell someone who was interested in attending but they are uncertain because they never did yoga or chanting before?
Today we face a wobbly world of too much complexity, fragmentation, noise, stimulation and haste. This is an opportunity to experience the Divine Center who abides in us. Meditative movement or yoga and chant can assist us in our intention and attention practices. Movement and chant can assist us in doing what we do on purpose.

7. What can participants expect to learn or "take home" with them from your retreat.
I think that would be a good question for a former retreatant to answer, however we strive to encourage a seed bed for a new or renewal experience of what the contemplative journey offers us. We invite all who attend to write or revisit their "Rule of Life."

8. Is there anything else you would like to add?
We introduced this type of retreat several years ago as a pilot program from those who had been on the contemplative path for ten or more years. And it was very well received. The hunger for a deeper life of prayer and a closer union with the Absolute One is immense. Jim and I as lay practioners love sharing with fellow pilgrims on the journey.

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Contemplative Outreach of New Mexico
Susan Rush - Coordinator
3761 Valmora Rd
Santa Fe, NM  87505
505-466-4527
Contemplative Outreach of New Mexico is under the guidance of Contemplative Outreach, Ltd., a world wide spiritual network. Contemplative Outreach was established to bring this ancient prayer practice out of the monastic milieu to those in our contemporary society.

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This page last updated 01/02/2012

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