The Center Contemplative Podcast: Recent Episodes
Dr. Michael Sciretti
The Center for Christian Spirituality companions with persons who desire a deepening connection with God that makes a difference in who they are with God, self, others, and the created world. Join us for a service that allows space for meditation, contemplation, and prayer.
Opportunities and invitations are constantly available to us. Which ones are for us? Which ones are from God? Which ones are from culture around us?
We pray for awareness to see the world around us with God's sight and perception. Seeing is more than observation, it's the ability to see the heart of a person or thing.
The Contemplative service worships in the style of the community in Taize, France. We sing simple worship choruses, meditate on scripture, receive Holy Communion, and offer prayer around the cross.
Join The Center for Christian Spirituality for this sacred, contemplative worship service which includes Holy Communion.
Week Three in the Advent series, "Be Born in Us Today." We consider the angels and their message of good news.
This is Herod, A Look Within: Week two of the Advent series, "Be Born in Us Today", focusing on King Herod. While we may not be as cruel and merciless as Herod, there is still a part of us that likes to control life and others by our own efforts. Hear God's invitation to freedom and wholeness.
Be Born in Us Today: The Magi: Going, Not Knowing: We begin the season of Advent pondering the Magi within, that part of us that ventures into the unknown, willing to listen to a call that we can't explain or justify. Unhurried prayer, music, and pauses for reflective prayer are elements of the service.
When we allow ourselves to be received by God, we are able to create space for others. We pray the Peace Prayer of St. Frances and offer spacious and reflective time around the stranger we know and the stranger we don't know.
Silence, song and scripture bring us into the spacious and healing presence of God. We know Jesus as the Good Shepherd. We trust and rest in his care.
Remembering the Sants: Carrying Light Onward: The Contemplative Ensemble joins us to mark the Sunday of All Saints. We prayerfully remember those who have gone on before us and who shined the light of Christ into our lives. We hear the call to carry the light of Christ forward in the days and years ahead.
God receives us in mercy...wherever we find ourselves. In turn, we are invited to pray & demonstrate God's mercy in the world. We consider the story Jesus told of the prayers of the Pharisee and the tax collector and how it invites us to give and receive mercy in fresh ways.
Seek First God's Kingdom: Seeking God's kingdom above all else is our primary invitation in the spritual life. Spritual disciplines and practices help us pay attention to God's leading. We may have one idea of the kind of person we strive to be, and God enters with his dream and design for who we are created to become.
Our life with God is an invitation into a future that is unknown and unseen. Abraham was instructed to go to the land God would show him. Abraham's trust and endurance form an image for our own spiritual journey.
Do Not Worry: Quiet Space for Attending to the Real: We are invited to bring our real selves and our real lives into worship and prayer. We trust God will all that is unsolved and unresolved in our lives.
Song, Silence & Holy Listening: A spacious and reflective service with the Contemplative singers. We rest in God's presence with music, scripture readings and prayers.
The Way of Unity: Holding the Tension in Giving and Receving: We explore the gift and the tension of giving and receiving. We offer our prayers, silences, words, and presence to God and each other.
The Way of Unity: Living with Others: Holding the Tension of Engagement and Standing Aside: We consider our relationships and the tension between engagement and standing aside. Esther de Waal writes, "Jesus never attempted to control or dominate, but through his words and his actions he offered them an opportunity to search for new directions and make new choices."
Contemplative worship in the style of Taize' with scripture readings, silence, and sung prayers.
The Way of Unity: Prayer and Service: We hold the tension between being people of action/service and people of prayer/contemplation.
The Way of Unity: Stability & Conversion: God is source of our stability and our growth into new life.
The Way of Unity: Holding the Tension, Staying Elastic: To walk in "The Way of Unity" is to hold the tension of opposing sides. In the midst of life's tensions, God invites to stretch and grow.