BOOK REVIEW: Open Mind, Open Heart

September 11, 2003

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second in a series of book reviews featured monthly in The Globe. The review is sponsored by the Religious Education Media Center as a service to those interested in developing their own spirituality. Books featured in this column can be borrowed from the diocesan media center.

You may request this or other books by writing Deacon Larry Sitzman, Religious Education Media Center, 1821 Jackson St., Sioux City, IA 51102, e-mail him at larrys@scdiocese.org or phone (712) 255-7933.

Father Thomas J. Topf offers this review: Open Mind, Open Heart by Rev. Thomas Keating (Continuum.)

This book was suggested to me by Father Gene Walding in the fall of 1994. Reading the book was the beginning of a major change in my prayer life that has brought many blessings. The book is a practical manual for a method of prayer that is called "centering prayer" which can lead a person to the doorway of contemplative prayer. The book's author, Rev. Thomas Keating, is a Cistercian priest, who is the founder of the Centering Prayer Movement and of the Contemplative Outreach Organization which offers retreats, workshops, and media materials on the subject of centering prayer.

The content of the book is taken from a series of talks by Father Keating on the practice of centering prayer and incorporates the specific questions of participants coming from different levels of experience. Consequently the format of each chapter is a reflection on one aspect of centering prayer followed by questions and answers that pertain to that subject. I have read the book several times and find it to be a gold mine of spiritual insight and practical wisdom.

In the early part of the book Father Keating begins with a chapter titled: "What Contemplation Is Not" where he separates the concepts of centering prayer and contemplation from other spiritual experiences, such as: relaxation exercises, charismatic gifts, psychic phenomena and mystical phenomena. Rather, he says, "Centering prayer is a method of moving our developing relationship with God to the level of pure faith.... It is simply a method leading to contemplative prayer." In this perspective, it is the first rung on the ladder of contemplative prayer.

In the chapter titled "Dimensions of Contemplative Prayer" the author says that true prayer is based on the certainty of the presence of the Holy Spirit within us and of his unfailing and continual inspiration. Therefore every prayer in this sense, is prayer in the Spirit.

Still, he says, "it seems more accurate to reserve the term prayer in the Spirit, for that prayer in which the inspiration of the Spirit is given directly to our spirit without the intermediary of our own reflections or acts of will. In other words, the Spirit prays in us and we consent. The traditional term for this kind of prayer is contemplation." This means the laying aside of thoughts, which or course presupposes that there are always thoughts. Contemplative prayer is not so much the absence of thoughts as detachment from them. Centering prayer is a method that enhances our effort of detachment.

Chapter four begins with the first steps of centering prayer and outlines the need for quietly opening and surrendering to God. Father Keating states: "Centering prayer is not a way of turning on the presence of God. Rather it is a way of saying, 'Here I am.' The next step is up to God. It is a way of putting yourself at God's disposal; it is he who determines the consequences." He writes that the result is like color added to a black-and-white television screen. The picture remains the same, but it is greatly enhanced by the new dimension of the picture that was not previously perceived. The reality of our lives may be much the same but everything looks so much better!

Of particular interest to many people is the phenomenon that happens with centering prayer that is called the "unloading of the unconscious." Father Keating calls it a kind of "divine psychotherapy", organically designed for each of us, to empty our unconscious and free us from the obstacles to the free flow of grace in our minds, emotions and bodies. The good news is that something can be done about traumatic emotional experiences from earliest childhood that are stored in our bodies and nervous systems in the form of tension, anxiety, and various defense mechanisms. Through the interior silence of centering prayer and the profound rest that this brings to the whole organism, emotional blocks begin to soften up and the human organism begins to throw off things that are harmful to its health. The result is a wonderful healing of memories and feelings stemming from the past and a new calmness when coping with present day challenges.

Open Mind, Open Heart is totally orthodox in all of it's content and is the fruit of the author's long life of contemplation and reflection as a monk and abbot. His sources are the great mystics of the church, like St John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, and the early Fathers of the Church. He has an amazing ability to put ancient and unchanging truths into language that the modern Christian can understand and practice. I heartily recommend this book for anyone interested in going deeper into prayer and intimacy with God.

(Father Topf serves as pastor at St. Michael Church in Kingsley.)