What is Contemplative Practice?

Contemplative Prayer at Montview

What is Contemplative Practice?
Christian contemplative practice or mysticism originated in the earliest days of the Christian church with the desert fathers, lay people who lived a life of simplicity and poverty in the deserts of Palestine, Egypt and Syria. These were the first Christian monks, although the church had no formalized hierarchy at the time. Through the middle ages, Christian contemplative practice was preserved in the monasteries and abbeys, although to a large degree these traditions were lost after the Reformation.

Though we speak of a contemplative "practice," there are a variety of practices that have been handed down through the years, including centering prayer, meditation, and lectio divina, the prayerful reading of the Bible. In contrast to many Christian practices that focus on understanding God through ideas, contemplative practices seek to develop an inward peace and quiet, so that we move beyond words and ideas to an inward experience of God-within-us.

In this way, these practices bear a strong resemblance to Sufism, the mystical tradition that flowered within Islam, or Buddhism, to name just two. The many common elements among the mystical traditions have often been referred to as "the perennial philosophy," because they are found in all of the great spiritual traditions from around the world.

Although for centuries these practices have primarily been the province of monks and nuns, during the past several decades there has been a renewed interest in reviving contemplative and mystical practices and an effort to incorporate these into the laypersons' life. In this same vein, the Contemplative Prayer Community aims to incorporate these practices into our daily lives.
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Contemplative Prayer at Montview
We are agrowing community of practitioners, seekers, and people curious about the contemplative and meditative traditions. Various members have studied and practiced within the Christian tradition, while others combine practices from other world traditions with their Christian faith. Our aim is to foster a community that can come together, sharing with and nurturing one another across these varied traditions. We aim to deepen our own practices by sharing our learning and understanding with each other.

The group meets on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month.

We meet in the Barrett Chapel at 7:30 PM and begin with a short period of silence in order to transition from "getting here" to "being here." Then we have a time for people to share a few minutes, if they wish, anything they would like to bring to the evening: prayer concerns, a poem or reading, or questions/struggles about their practice. Not sharing is ok, too. We then have silent prayer for 30 minutes. We close with a spoken prayer and blessing at 8:30.

For more information, please contact Co-Pastor Greg Cummins at 303-355-1651 (cummins@montview.org) or Ann Christensen at (303) 696-2634 (Ann@Lacey.org).

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