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Quik-Click Guide
What Is
Bridges to Contemplative Living?
Principles of
Bridges to Contemplative Living
Content of
Bridges to Contemplative Living
Who Should Participate in
Bridges?
What Is Contemplative Living?
More About Thomas Merton
Schedule of Bridges Groups
Registration
Contact
"[T]he fact remains that my flight from the
world is not
a reproach to you who remain in the world, and I have no
right to repudiate the world in a purely negative fashion,
because if I do that, my flight will have taken me not to
truth and to God, but to a private, though doubtless pious
illusion."
--Thomas Merton. The
Hidden Ground of Love (1985), p.156.
The Catholic Parishes in Waterloo Present
Bridges to
Contemplative Living
with Thomas Merton
What is Bridges to Contemplative Living?
Bridges to Contemplative Living
with Thomas Merton is a
small group faith-sharing process designed to help participants
enter into a process of personal spiritual transformation
leading to a more just and peaceful world.
It uses the writings of Thomas
Merton and other spiritual guides to help participants enter into a holistic process of growth which will
lead them to spiritual transformation and a life of deeper
contemplation. However, the thoughts of these spiritual
guides are just a starting point; the process depends upon the
life experience and spiritual awareness of the participants as
the foundation for spiritual growth and transformation.
The Bridges to Contemplative
Living series was edited by Jonathan Montaldo, executive
director of the Merton Institute for Contemplative Living, and Robert G.
Toth, associate director of the Institute. The series was published by Ave Maria Press.
Principles of Bridges to Contemplative
Living
This process of spiritual
transformation is based on five key principles of Merton's
thought:
• Our everyday life if our spiritual life.
• It is every person's primary vocation to be fully
human, aware of who we are, and
how we relate to other persons.
• Our spiritual formation cannot take place in
isolation from the rest of our lives.
• Spiritual formation is grounded in the experience of
relationships and community.
• Personal growth and transformation is the foundation
for social and cultural
transformation.
Content of Bridges to Contemplative
Living
The Bridges process contains eight
sections or "courses:"
• Entering the School of Your
Experience
• Becoming Who You Already Are
• Living Your Deepest Desires
• Discovering the Hidden Ground of Love
• Traveling Your Road to Joy
• Writing Yourself into the Book of Life
• Adjusting Your Life's Vision
• Seeing That Paradise Begins Now
Each course or section contains
eight reflections. The Catholic parishes offer each course
or section over a four-week period during which participants
consider two reflections each week.
Each reflection in the Bridges
process provides an opportunity for prayer, reading, personal
reflection and small group dialogue, all of which leads
participants progressively into deeper spiritual transformation
and contemplative living.
This process is not designed as a
study of contemplative living or the contemplative tradition.
It is designed to actually help participants become more
contemplative in their daily lives.
The Bridges format uses
contemplative dialogue, a process which uses various themes to
help participants reflect on their own experiences and the
experience of others. Contemplative dialogue is focused on
listening, reflecting and integrating what ones hears and
discovers. It is not out-come oriented. It avoids
judgment and evaluation. It is meant to be
non-threatening, safe, and affirming.
Who Should Participate in Bridges?
Bridges to Contemplative Living
is designed for adults of any age who seek to live more
meaningful lives through deepening and integrating the
relationships that make up everyday life experience. The
themes and content are universal, and the Bridges format
assumes that participants will come from a wide variety of
personal and spiritual backgrounds with a wide variety of
experiences, viewpoints, and beliefs. Bridges is
easily accessible to people of any faith background.
What is Contemplative Living?
Contemplative living is a way of
listening and responding to our everyday experience. It
deepens the awareness of our connectedness and communion with
others, becomes a positive force of change in our lives, and
provides meaningful direction to our spiritual journey.
Fr. Donald Goergen OP writes:
"'Contemplative' describes a way of living, a way of loving, a
way of being, a way of seeing. Contemplation is not something we
do at a
particular time of the day. Contemplation is rather living here
and now the day in which we find ourselves. Contemplation has to
do with the everyday. It is not a question of withdrawing from
the world but rather a way of being in the world. One can
retreat from the world and still not attain contemplative
presence. One can be headed in the wrong direction even in the
desert. One can be hurrying to accomplish something even in a
monastery. There can be a rush toward enlightenment.
Contemplation doesn't have so much to do with 'doing' as it does
with 'letting it be done unto me' (Luke 1:38). It means
attentiveness to a different sense of time and timing"
("Becoming Contemplative," Priests and People, June 2002).
Living contemplatively begins with
ourselves but leads us in the end to embrace deeply not only our
truest self, but God, neighbor, and all of creation. By
reflecting on our everyday everyday experiences, we seek the
depths of our inner truth. By exploring our beliefs,
illusions, attitudes and assumptions, we find our true self and
discover how we relate to the larger community.
The goal of contemplative living is
not merely personal fulfillment, but a way of living that
contributes to the creation of a global society that
incorporates God's design for justice as peace.
Contemplative living directs our minds and hearts to the truly
important issues of human existence, making us less likely to be
captivated by the superficial distractions that so easily occupy
our time.
Ultimately, contemplative living
leads us to a sense of well-being, profound gratitude, and a
clearer understanding of our purpose in life.
About Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton was born in France in
1915. He was educated in France, England and the United
States and was baptized in the Catholic Church in 1938. In
1941 he entered the Cistercian Order as a monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky, where he wrote his autobiography, The
Seven Storey Mountain, which was published in 1948. He
served as Master of Scholastics and Novices at Gethsemani and
wrote numerous books and articles on the spiritual life,
inter-religious understanding, peace and social justice.
In 1968 he journeyed to Thailand to attend a conference of
contemplatives, and was accidentally electrocuted. He died
there at the age of 53.
For over sixty years, Merton's
thought and writing have guided spiritual seekers around the
world. His writing offers important insights into four
essential relationships -- with oneself, with God, with other
people, and with all of creation. While the Christian
tradition is the foundation of Merton's thought, he is open and
inclusive in his examination of other religious traditions and
often draws from their contributions to enhance the spiritual
growth of individuals and communities.
Merton is distinguished among modern
spiritual writers by the depth and substance of his thinking.
He was a scholar who distilled the best thinking of outstanding
theologians, philosophers and poets, from both the West and
East. His remarkable and enduring popularity suggests that
he speaks to the minds and hearts of people searching for
answers to life's important questions. His writing takes
people into deep places within themselves and offers insight
into the paradoxes of life.
Merton wrestles with how to be
contemplative in a world of action, but offers no quick fix or
"ten easy steps" to a successful spiritual life. In The
Hidden Ground of Love, published in 1985, he wrote:
"When I first became a monk, yes, I was
sure of 'answers.' But as
I grow old in the monastic life and advance
further in solitude, I
become aware that I have only begun to seek
the questions. And
what are the questions? Can we make
sense out of our existence?
Can we honestly give our lives meaning
meerely by adopting a certain
set of explanations which pretend to tell
us why the world began and
where it will end, why there is evil and
what is necessary for a good
life? My brothers and sisters,
perhaps in my solitude I have become,
as it were, an explorer for you, a searcher
in realms which you are
are not able to visit...."
______________________
Some of the information on this webpage was
reprinted or adapted from Bridges to Contemplative Living
with Thomas Merton, edited by Jonathan Montaldo and Robert
G. Toth. Copyright Ave Maria Press.
Read a profile of Thomas Merton at:
http://ncronline3.org/drupal/?q=node/2820
For more resources about Thomas
Merton go to:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/episode-no-1212/profile-thomas-merton/1378/
______________________
Schedule of Bridges Groups
Bridges groups meet a various times
throughout the year, usually on a day and time chosen by the
participants.
Registration
•
By phone: call
319-234-9912
•
By email:
DBQ208s3@arch.pvt.k12.ia.us
•
Online:
Click here to register online
• • •
For information contact:
Director of Adult
Faith Formation
320 Mulberry St., Waterloo IA 50703 • Phone:
319-234-9912
email: DBQ208s3@arch.pvt.k12.ia.us
Posted 09.30.08 •
Last Update: 02.02.09
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