“Welcoming Prayer is the practice that actively lets go of thoughts and feelings that support the false-self system. It embraces painful emotions experienced in the body rather than avoiding them or trying to suppress them. It does not embrace the suffering as such but the presence of the Holy Spirit in the particular pain, whether physical, emotional, or mental. Thus, it is the full acceptance of the content of the present moment. [In] giving the experience over to the Holy Spirit, the false-self system is gradually undermined and the true self liberated.” - Father Thomas Keating As we enter this New Year, where are you aware of wanting to let go of parts of your “false-self system”? How does accepting the harder-to-experience things in yourself (be they painful or ugly) with God open you to the freedom of living in your true self? How does entering the year with this practice of acceptance and release, rather than resolution and control, sound to you? Here are the steps/movements of the Welcoming Prayer, as stated by the Contemplative Outreach site: * Feel and sink into what you are experiencing this moment in your body. * “WELCOME” what you are experiencing this moment in your body as an opportunity to consent to the Divine Indwelling. * Let go by saying “I let go of my desire for security, affection, control and embrace this moment as it is.

Posted by Jamie Bonilla at 2021-01-05 14:56:53 UTC