Embracing Unity in the Christian Heritage

These are notes and a partial transcript of a speech by Gail Fitzpatrick-Hopler, the former director of Contemplative Outreach, that was videotaped at the annual Contemplative Outreach Conference in 2002. In the video, Gail talks about the founding values, beliefs, and theological principles of Contemplative Outreach, which still guide our organization today. 

          ~ Kathy Agnew

CO:  Embracing Unity in the Christian Heritage, by Gail Fitzpatrick-Hopler
From the CO, Ltd. Annual Conference in Nashville, TN, October 12, 2002.
(Starts at 4:30 minutes)
The YouTube video is available at the following link:
Ecumenism: United in Our Common Search for God
 
Introduction by Mary Dwyer:
 
Contemplative Outreach has always been based on the foundational piece of service:  The God in us serving the God in others. Theological Principle #11:  Following the teachings of Jesus, we exercise leadership as service, especially keeping alert and responsive to the growing needs of CO. 

Started in 1983 at a mountain top in New Mexico – at the Lama Foundation, with Father Keating. Theological Principle #13 – any good that the organization does is the work of the Holy Spirit…
 
Gail Fitzpatrick-Hopler:
 
We are the body of Christ. It is so nice to be a member of that body. We don’t have to talk too much about how we are going to embrace unity because we are already there. We are already in our basic goodness—it is just that we don’t know it and we don’t recognize it. Some of the boundaries and blocks that we experience on our ordinary-consciousness level of existence are really just on the ordinary level of existence, but the truth of where we really live is at that extraordinary level where God is and where we all are and where we really come from.  A prayer:
 
In silence
Learn to give of yourself
forgive others, live with gratitude
and then you need not seek inner peace because peace will find you.
 
Our Vision and Theological Principles: It has really become a way of life for some of us.
Wisdom Statement of CO:  it is who we are, why we are, and how we go about being who we are.
 
Contemplative Outreach is a network of individuals and small faith communities, committed to living the contemplative dimension of the gospel in everyday life through the practice of Centering prayer.
 
The contemplative dimension of the gospel manifests itself in an ever-deepening union with the living Christ and the practical caring for others that flows from that relationship. Our purpose is to share the method of centering prayer in its immediate conceptual background. WE encourage practice of Lectio Divina, particularly its movement into contemplative prayer, which a regular practice of CP facilitates.
 
 We Identify with the contemplative Christian heritage. While we are formed by our respective denominations, we are united in our common search for God and in the experience of the living Christ through Centering Prayer. We affirm our solidarity with the contemplative dimensions of other religions and sacred traditions, with the needs and rights of the human family, and all of creation.  We are called to continue to let go and move into the vision so that we can really become the loving unified people we are.
 
Contemplative Outreach from its beginning has always embraced everyone – every Christian denomination. Centering prayer did come out of the monastic tradition of Roman Catholicism—from St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Mass.  Contemplative prayer was developed there, but it does not belong to the Catholic church. It belongs to all Christians. The monastic tradition just happens to be the vehicle. This delivery system has carried silence, solitude, and simplicity of life over the centuries. So it belongs to everyone and everyone is welcome.
 
[This delivery system?] became a bit of a laboratory for the idea of transcending the day-to-day activities of our world and looking at what are the benefits and fruits of this prayer that it brings about through the practice. It can feel like we are doing nothing, but powerful changes can occur. It has a way of seeping into the hearts of human beings, and the more human beings practice this prayer and other silent practices where we give ourselves to God completely, the more this particular type of energy seeps into this planet.  Only a 40-minute practice day after day—but it accumulates, and the more united that energy is, the more it puts into the universe unity because the ultimate goal of Centering Prayer is to be in union with God. So it does not have a divisive component; it moves towards unity.  The very nature of the prayer practice itself is about unity and being one piece and one whole body.
   
The Contemplative attitudes of meekness, gentleness, friendliness, love, peace, and compassion come out of the practice itself. All we can do is allow God to transform our hearts and bring peace to our center so that we can illuminate and be peace in the world. There’s nothing else we can do. The energy of contemplative prayer is way bigger than anything else. We have a secret tool.  Many people practice this. And the more  we give ourselves to it, the more we will see the fruit of those contemplative attitudes and ways of coping and confronting the chaos in the world.  These are the contemplative fruits that come out of the practice itself.
 
 We teach ourselves gentleness by ever-so-gently returning to our sacred word. By doing this, we impress gentleness on our being.  It helps to undo all of the violent things we take in.
 
This practice teaches us how to be gentle. We may want to look at our practice and whether we are returning to our sacred word in a gentler fashion. Are we being loving and kind and gentle to ourselves? Because the violence we experience outside of us is really also the violence that we do to ourselves because it comes out from within us.  So the way that we can turn toward peace, gentleness, and kindness is by first starting with our own hearts. By being gentle to ourselves through the practice of Centering Prayer.
 
Principles of CO:
While we are formed by our respective denominations, we are united by our common search for God. There is a common search for God that we tap into. We have a deep knowing that there is more to life than what meets the eye – a deep knowing and a non-violent approach to ourselves [as well as?] being compassionate to others. So we transform ourselves and transform others by being willing to let God take over our lives. We completely surrender
 
Many people arrive at retreats and are worn out and look out with an inner dialogue with a critical mind. And at the end, they feel loving towards others and have a loving mind.  In the silence, we begin to hear how critical we really are—we hear our false self and we let go of it. And the more prayer we do with these people, the more oneness we experience at a deep level.
 
Ecumenism: Thomas Merton has said:  We can get into all kinds of denominational conversations, but we are not going to go anywhere unless we get together on the level of religious experience and go beyond the boundaries of talking and thinking.  An example of this is our experience on a 10-day silent Centering Prayer retreat.
 
So our experience on retreat can be similar to Thomas Merton’s statement that unity comes from sharing a spiritual experience. At retreats, we get together on the level of spiritual experience. We can’t go through these problems, [we can only be them]. It’s a laboratory of experience where you come together and bring your false self big time, but when you experience the silence with other people for 10 days and you share that deep silence and don’t really talk and don’t activate your thinking, all you feel is the love and the embrace.  All of you are embraced in this safe and sacred place.  The trappings of the false self seem to dissipate or disappear, and you feel love for everyone in the room.  The unconditional love just pours out in the retreat setting. In 10 days, you feel enormous love—that you’re floating on that ocean of love from the spirit of God. We have to beam it out, and we have to be a presence.
 
And you may ask yourself:  Do I really have all that love inside of me? That is all there is.  Love just comes pouring out. Jesus said “Love others as I have loved you” – unconditional love that pours out. This love pours out in retreat settings.
 
We have to be present to the presence of God in our own hearts and allow that to connect with others, and then we can bring peace to the world—because peace is in our hearts at that point.
 
When people start talking with each other [again], they put on their false self just like you would put on a jump suit. The love that was welling up disappeared. All of a sudden, it became something else: talking, thinking. So silence is really way more important than we realize. To go into that secret room and to develop that interior capacity for silence is really critical at this particular time in our evolution.
 
Contemplative Outreach has a delivery system for this silence that is happening through retreats sponsored by CO all over the world. It’s really mushrooming, and I think this is seeping into the planet—we have something quite powerful.
 
Our weekly centering prayer groups have the stated purpose of helping people develop, continue, and remain faithful to the daily practice of centering prayer. We are part of that delivery system of helping people develop the inner capacity for silence, facilitating their access to love.