Prayer is an art that cannot just be taught. It must be experienced, lived, and practiced. In Prayer in the Cave of the Heart, Cyprian Consiglio draws on his experience as a Camaldolese monk to give readers an accessible reflection on prayer that is based on Bede Griffith's universal call to contemplation." In this text, the contemplative traditions of East and West intersect to invite readers into prayer that makes them "present to the Spirit who is already present to us."
Midlife is more than a crisis. It is a summons to grow and a challenge to change. Midlife beckons one inward. It is a move to interiority, a passage to the deeper places where we discover our authenticity, where we realize both our limitations and our grandeur.
In the Cave of my Heart: Poems is one part poetry and one part prayer. This book is a result of healing. ♥ This takes you through one woman's journey into the cave of her own heart where she faced forgiveness, learned to breathe again and relearned how to listen. Jenny invites you into the darkness and you journey through the lessons with her into the light. ♥ This book is a great read for anyone on a healing journey whether it be of the mind, body or soul. It will inspire you and open your heart to healing. Expansion Expand your mind Open your third eye Expand your mind Open your third eye That's what they say But the mind is where the confusion is. The heart is where expansion lies In love Compassion Truth Peace Stillness. Jenny Bell is a self-healer. At the age of ten, Jenny began to question how to get closer to God/The Divine/Universe/The Creator. She knew that the religion she was born into didn't possess all the answers. Jenny began a journey. She has studied religions from around the world both old and new. This journey has brought Jenny to cast spells, become Reiki certified, join Kyle Gray's Angel Team, pet wolves, participate in circles, and meditate in a Buddhist temple. For over twenty years Jenny has practiced yoga, meditation, read cards and worked with the healing powers of crystals. Jenny also holds a degree in the study of English Literature and was a public school teacher for thirteen years.
"What astonishing work and far ahead of its time, even though it is based on an ancient prayer practice..." Deborah Heartwood, MA, Sr. Prayer Chaplin, Unity Churches Unity Reverend Carol Ruth Knox shared her encounters with the Divine and the lessons she learned from them. Her messages were an anomaly for New Thought ministers. Instead of using the Divine to manifest health, houses, or relationships, she taught that God is everywhere - in every situation, even the most difficult ones. Sometimes life is hard. "But you are never alone," Carol Ruth would say, "God is here in this hard time, too! I'm not here to make your life easier," she cautioned, "I'm here to help you grow deeper." In this Book, Prayer of the Heart, Rev. Knox explains how she survived some of the darkest times of her life - her 'Dark Night of the Soul'. She shares, "I felt barren and bitter and experienced an overwhelming feeling of bondage. Do you? Are you bored and bicker a lot? Do you feel as if you are inside a gray cave and you don't know how to get out? Do you feel your relationships have not treated you right, your living situations don't work, and your general way of being is like a low-grade headache? Are you married to the 'perfect person', have a wonderful job, sleep for ten yours but you are not at all renewed and have no zest? Right. I tried to think correctly and did 15 different workshops, and even experienced spiritual 'openings' only to have them close down again and I returned to the same 'drone of consciousness' and did not'break out of the cave' Then I began the Prayer of the Heart work and entered a whole new level of spirituality."
A Prayer book designed to be used by individual women, as well as by those who are leading group prayer services. For nearly two millennia, Christian women have learned to pray in the language of other people's souls. From worshiping God as father to envisioning a holy life as a military campaign, they've been taught to approach the Divine with the hearts and minds of men. She Who Prays: A Woman's Interfaith Prayer Book offers women a new way to pray. It draws on feminine images of God, as well as the language and experience of women, to help women tap into their own rich and unique spirituality. With material from new translations of ancient Christian hymns and prayers, as well as original prayers in the Christian and other faith traditions, She Who Prays will help women speak to God in their own voices. Arranged in roughly the same format as the Book of Common Prayer, She Who Prays contains a seven-day cycle of daily prayer services, prayers for special occasions, and a woman-oriented liturgical calendar that honors the lives of women of all faiths. The book also contains four rituals marking such themes as healing, reconciliation, and new beginnings, and a prayer to be used while walking a labyrinth. An appendix provides information on world religions and instructions for group services.
DeepLight: A Memoir of the Soul is a rich narrative of a contemporary woman's spiritual quest. Within the context of her extensive study of religious and mystical traditions, and her experiences as a woman, a monastic, and an Episcopal priest, Susan Creighton weaves a spiral tapestry of memories, journal entries, and poetry. Her search for an authentic practice of contemplative prayer led across cultural, historical, and religious boundaries, but is most significantly shaped and enriched by the teachings of mystics like St. John of the Cross and the ancient tradition of Orthodox ascetical theology and spiritual practice. Now living under vows as an anchorite, her memoir shares with the reader ways in which the Jesus Prayer and other spiritual practices lead to deeper contemplative prayer as well as helping us develop greater discrimination and compassion for ourselves and others.
A perennial problem for spiritual traditions of all sorts is dualism—either a positing of a false distance between the Divine and the created or a rejection of creation and the human body. Many contemporary spiritual seekers have sensed this problem and sought to remedy it through myriad solutions drawn from various spiritual traditions and secular wisdom, both Eastern and Western. Cyprian Consiglio, OSB Cam, explores Christianity’s contribution to the discussion. He offers a revisioning and rearticulation of this teaching, based on the prophetic seminal work of Bede Griffiths, toward a practical and integral spirituality that reverences all aspects of our being human—spirit, soul, and body.
Over time our ideas about God and religion tend to match the stage of our own maturity and the level of our own consciousness. In addition to our different ideas of God, there are also those who profess some form of monotheistic religion but worship other gods: the power of the economy, military strength, fame. Perhaps they even use––or misuse––the name of God or credit God with whatever is gained. Thus, the challenge for our times is this: how do we think of God as Jesus introduces God to us? While exploring Scripture, the thoughts of theologians, Benedictine monasticism, Jewish and Islamic traditions, along with his own personal reflections, Cyprian Consiglio, OSB Cam, shows us what it means to be church, to be a follower of Jesus, and to be like God: to imitate the self-emptying of God and Christ. We are called to show the world God as Jesus reveals God to be: merciful, compassionate, healer to all.
