This year I chose to start living like a contemplative.  The lifestyle change has had an amazing impact.  It started with the thought that I had never seen monks or nuns run.  I took this to mean PACE was a very big deal and one I had failed at miserably.  I could no longer shove everything into my schedule just because there was room. Creating transition time was my first major adjustment.  That alone has created an amazing amount of peace and tranquility in my daily life.  The practice is: statio -stopping one thing before beginning another…a holy pause.
     Lately, I have come to realize multitasking is a spiritual killer!   Every now and then I will stop and count how many things I am doing at the same time.  I am always surprised.  I just naturally juggle several things at the same time and then I wonder why I can’t remember what I was doing, or thinking.  When you are multitasking you can’t really be fully present to any one thing.  Even if that one thing is folding the laundry. 
     It’s a beautiful thing to be unhurried and sit down and appreciate breathing.  That’s what I call a contemplative.
            ~Cathy Mann Christiansen, NCO Coordinator. Summer 2023

I welcomed Spring, though it seemed to come slowly…but I will say, it was dazzling!!  Now, all of the sudden here is Summer! 

I hope your summer schedule has a bit more freedom.  Summer is a great time to take a break, relax and maybe even do a bit of speculation and reflection.   The Pause App by John Eldredge has helped me do this lately.  ‘30 Days to Resilience’ is a beautiful progression to experience the presence of God.  It is a morning and evening devotion time that lasts about 10 minutes.  I have many favorite days but recently he has been talking about the mistake many of us are making in these turbulent times – trying to fit a little bit of God into our busy lives.  He suggests instead to begin with God. To rearrange our days to be centered around our life in God and move out from there.  This, of course, makes much more sense and is more organic as you move through the 30 day app.  I was encouraged to hear him say “It is the things that become habitual which actually shape our lives.”  So true, as I immediately thought of my Centering Prayer practice.  A small addition to my life 13 years ago has changed everything.  Most importantly, the experience of God with me, the complete love and acceptance I experience every moment and my desire to do exactly what God would want me to do.  Eldredge asks us to think about what is eroding our union with God.  We make choices every day that either strengthen or erode that union.

This summer would be a great time to think about what habits are shaping your life. I would encourage you to join a Centering Prayer group or attend Meditation Chapel to support your practice. 
            ~Cathy Mann Christiansen, NCO Coordinator

The new normal.  I’ve heard that phrase so many times in the past month.  Living now on the outer rim of a pandemic that included some major chaotic social and political upheaval means it can be hard to find a comfortable place to land.  Just when I thought I could breathe a bit deeper, two of my sons experienced some injuries, one from a dog attack and the other from an intruder on their property.  We also had our second son, Ben, get married last weekend.  So much has happened that when I went on a long walk this past week I felt I could exhale for the first time in a very long time.   I hadn’t realized how much I had been holding…physically and emotionally.  What a relief it was to relax into the arms of God and receive the comfort I needed.

This week I have had a bit more time to enjoy God, to relax and nurture my relationship with him.  How about you?  Are you finding those times?  Summer is here and things are changing and I find it a good time to think about how I want to live my post-pandemic life.

I recently listened to a podcast by Pete Scazzaro (Emotionally Healthy Spiritually) about flourishing.  That is not a word I would use to describe the last year and a half.  Surviving, holding on, coping are the words I have used. Maybe now is the time to move on.

In my Spiritual Direction work my philosophy comes from an underlying ‘doing from being’ approach. Living out of the overflow.  Pete was speaking about the same idea and has much better words than I have to express it.  He suggested we ‘deepen our ability to BE before we DO’.  If I feel myself striving and feel burdened or experience pressure and stress it is an indication that I need to sink into the heart of God.  Don’t skim on the BE.  In order to live out of the overflow I need spiritual nutrition.  I need quiet stillness sitting with God.  I want to live out of a cup that overflows, not one that is scraping the bottom. Just think about all the beautiful images in scripture about water.  Life-giving, overflowing, refreshing water.

Before we start back to all the ‘doing’ I would encourage you to deepen your ability to BE.  What does that look like for you?  A disciplined Centering Prayer commitment?  A second sit?  Daily scripture reading?  I would encourage you to try prayer practices that nurture your inner life and help you experience the delight and embrace of God.

I am looking forward to moving on and flourishing.  That will come as I ‘deepen my ability to BE’.

Cathy Mann Christiansen

Nebraska Contemplative Outreach Coordinator

“Oh, Lord, let me feel at one with myself. Let me perform a thousand daily tasks with love, but let everyone spring from a greater central core of devotion and love.” ~Etty Hillesum

“Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths, or the turning inwards in prayer for five short minutes. “. ~Etty Hillesum

Etty Hillesum was a Dutch author and contemplative. In 1943 she was deported and killed in the Auschwitz Concentration camp.

I sit

I am

I enter my beloved’s heart

    and am held in love’s embrace

My only desire is presence

I ask nothing

I am content loving

My silence speaks my love

I am here

~ cmc