Father Thomas Keating is widely known as the co-founder of the Centering Prayer movement and a master teacher of contemplative prayer and devotion. In a final of creative energy during early winter 2018 — the last winter of his life — he and his nephew, filmmaker Peter Jones, worked intensely for three months, pooling their respective artistic gifts to create an extraordinary, visually stunning collection of eight small poems, haiku like in their leanness and breathtaking in their wisdom. They are, essentially Thomas’s final will and testament, his spiritual legacy to the world.
These poems electrified the audience when Cynthia Bourgeault first presented them in a three-day live webinar. We are thrilled to have her with us for a written, interactively taught course that explores these poems in even greater depth. Even if you, like Fr. Keating, do not consider yourself particularly a poetry lover, we trust that you will still find plenty here to fire your imagination and fuel your journey.
The course will allow you to glimpse, through their shimmering facets, key aspects of his final journey of transfiguration. The whole course will be set on the foundation of the question “How do we live in this world of pain and uncertainty with the courage and unity that come from turning toward the stillness, the transfiguration?
Cynthia will cover several key themes:
- the dark night passage
- divinization
- unitive life
- the transfiguration (rather than dismantling) of the false self.
When you sign up for this e-course, you will receive 12 emails, sent to you on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Each will include:
- a short commentary on the poem of the day (some lasting two days)
- some questions for reflection
- a daily practice
- an invitation to be part of the Practice Circle, a forum open 24-7 for the worldwide community of this e-course to share thoughts and questions, with Cynthia’s guidance.
Included in the course will also be an hour-long Zoom gathering with Cynthia on September 22 at 4 p.m. ET (3 p.m. CT, 2 p.m. MT, 1 p.m. PT).
Cynthia is a modern-day mystic, Episcopal priest, writer, and internationally known retreat leader. She divides her time between solitude at her seaside hermitage in Maine and a demanding schedule traveling globally to teach and spread the recovery of the Christian contemplative and Wisdom paths. Cynthia is a core faculty member at the Center for Action and Contemplation alongside fellow teachers and colleagues James Finley, Richard Rohr, Barbara Holmes, and Brian McLaren. She is profiled in S&P’s Living Spiritual Teachers project, and this will be the 11th e-course she has offered through us.
Please join us to journey deeper with these poems and with the final message Thomas Keating leaves to us through them.