Quotations and an Examen for Making Our Contemplative Practice Real

This weekend I had the honor of giving the closing talk at the 2025 Centering Prayer Summit, sponsored by Closer Than Breath. Since my talk was the last talk of the conference, I was asked to speak on how to bring the wisdom and energy of the conference into our daily lives. I called my talk “Making It Real: Integrating Mystical Wisdom into the Spiritual Practice of our Daily Lives” and I explored how even when we have “mountaintop experiences” during Centering Prayer (or any other spiritual practice), we need to look at ways to integrate the insights of our spirituality into the ordinary rhythms of our daily lives. I suggested that the Spirit is always inviting us into something new, and that in our time one of the movements of the Spirit is to call more and more people into contemplative practice. Our numbers may not be huge, but we can be like the rudder of the ship — a small part that steers the entire vessel. When we listen to the movement of the Spirit in our hearts, we can be agents for making the world a better place. I shared several quotations with the conference from authors I admire, and I finished my talk with an Examen built around this them of making our contemplative practice real. So whether or not you were at the summit, here are those resources for your consideration.

SOME WISDOM TO CONSIDER: Quotations for Making It Real

Evolution is a wildly self-transcending process: it has the utterly amazing capacity to go beyond what went before. So evolution is in part a process of transcendence, which incorporates what went before and then adds incredibly novel components. The drive to self-transcendence thus appears to be built into the very fabric of the Kosmos itself.
— Ken Wilber, A Brief History of Everything

Contemplation has a context: it does not occur in a vacuum. Today’s context is that of the multinational corporations, the arms race, the strong state, the economic crisis, urban decay, the growing racism, and human loneliness. It is within this highly deranged culture that contemplatives explore the waste of their own being. It is in the midst of chaos and crisis that they pursue the vision of God and experience the conflict which is at the core of the contemplative search. They become part of that conflict and begin to see into the heart of things. The contemplative shares in the passion of Christ which is both an identification with the pain of the world and also the despoiling of the principalities and powers of the fallen world-order.
— Kenneth Leech, The Social God 

We close off the breaking in of God into our lives if we cannot admit into consciousness the situations of profound impasse we face personally and societally. If we deal with personal impasse only in the way our society teaches us—by illusion, minimization, repression, denial, apathy—we will deal with societal impasse in the same way. The “no way out” trials of our personal lives are but a part of the far more frightening situations of national and international impasse that have been formed by the social, economic, and political forces in our time.
— Constance Fitzgerald, OCD, “Impasse and Dark Night” from the book Desire, Darkness and Hope: Theology in a Time of Impasse

Can meditation change you? Of course it can. Anything you invest time and effort into is likely to impact you in some way. It’s just that the impact may not necessarily be in the ways you may expect or predict. Meaningful personal change isn’t a destination, it’s a journey; and usually one that is far from linear. If, like us, you still have hope that contemplative techniques can help you change or explore yourself, don’t forget to stay open to what happens along the way. Each and every practice, the classes we choose to attend, the books we read and especially the people we meet will change you – perhaps more significantly than the technique itself.
— Catherine Wikholm & Miguel Farias, The Buddha Pill

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory… The power—there are many secondary sources for the power which is of God. There is the power that comes from the challenge of a great need, deeply felt, in the life of others… This is one of the reasons why we tend to reduce our direct exposures to the needs of our fellows. We know that it will take us out of ourselves, out of our complacency and put our resources and ourselves completely at their disposal… Once the energy has been released, we become something more than we were before. A plus is added to ourselves. And into this added something, we ourselves have entered. We become, in deeds, the power.
— Howard Thurman, Meditations of the Heart

EXAMEN for Making It Real

1. We’ll begin our examen by acknowledging the gift of the omnipresence of Divine Love. God is not elsewhere, so I invite you to give thanks for the grace and beauty of the Divine Presence, right here and right now.
   1-2 Minutes of Silence
2. Now I invite you to pray for the grace of knowing and understanding the Divine Presence and Action Within: within you, within your life circumstances, within all your relationships. In Centering Prayer, we consent to that Divine Presence and Action within, so now let us seek by the grace of the Spirit to know that interior action.
   1-2 Minutes of Silence
   
3. Now I invite you to join with this community and review the graces of this weekend. As I share a few prompts with you, I invite you to reflect on them, and to consider the invitation of the Spirit to integrate contemplative wisdom and calling into your life.
   1. 1. How may I continue to consent to the Divine Presence and Action within, even when I am off the cushion?
         1-2 Minutes of Silence
         
      2. What is being asked of me, and am I ready to respond to this request? Can I accept the guidance of the Spirit?
         1-2 Minutes of Silence
         
      3. How can I bring a spirit of curiosity and wonder to the ongoing transformation of my heart and soul in response to the Divine Presence and Action within?
         1-2 Minutes of Silence
         
      4. In what ways am I invited to new and different ways of being in the world, and in my relationships?
         1-2 Minutes of Silence
         
      5. Where do I experience resistance to the action of the Spirit?
         1-2 Minutes of Silence
         
      6. How am I equipped for discernment — who are my partners for discernment and accountability — as I seek to integrate what is new and transformational in my contemplative life and practice?
         1-2 Minutes of Silence
         
      7. How do I live into my contemplative vocation today?
         1-2 Minutes of Silence
         
4. We’ll complete our Examen by considering the day and days to come. What is your vision for more deeply and fully integrating the gifts of Centering Prayer and the action of the Spirit into your life? Consider how the Spirit is inviting you into a more transformed and mystical expression of the Spirit dwelling within you.
   1-2 Minutes of Silence
   
5. Let us end with these words of prayer from Julian of Norwich:
   God, of your goodness, give us yourself, for you are enough for us. We can ask for nothing less that would be fully to your honor, and if we were to ask for anything else, we would be left in want. Only in you do we have all. Amen.

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