Two poems about centering prayer..."The mysterious majesty"

I practice centering prayer, what is also known as contemplative prayer. These two poems tell of that practice. They are new poems, and short. Regarding contemplation, the monks of New Camaldoli have been practicing that kind of prayer for centuries. Here is their website: http://www.contemplation.com/ .

You may also wish to learn more about centering prayer, as directed and taught by Father Thomas Keating. Here is his website: http://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/frntpage.htm . Sometimes Father Thomas offers a telephone conference about centering prayer, and the conference usually lasts about an hour. The cost is nominal.

The Mysterious Majesty
by Peter Menkin

The earnest prayer
I offer is to receive
The mysterious, majesty
Of God in a quiet
Way of silence.

To wait on the Lord,
This special time,
A set aside for me
And my soul to know
You are.









Being with You
by Peter Menkin

The afternoon comes,
Each day prayer time:
Being with You.
Quiet,
Silence my thoughts.

In the presence of God,
In Christ,
In the Spirit
My self approaches,
My self it waits,
To just be.










If you recall, I wrote a poem about Pentecost and referenced the God of the Old Testament. One would usually make the poetic statement I made referencing the Trinity or Christ. I feel I need to explain myself, and here is a quote from a book titled, "Introduction to Theology" by Owen C. Thomas and Ellen K. Wondra. It is a book one would find in an Episcopal Seminary course, and was suggested by Father Tierney who is an Episcopal Priest. The poem I refer to is "Pentecost Sunday Prayer."

The quote:

"First, it is clear that the God attested in the Old Testament is one, a unity, and not a plurality. But second, it is also clear that God of the Old Testament is not a simple unity, but a complex, organic, or differentiated unity. All the anthropomorphisms of the Old Testament interpret the unity of Yahweh on the analogy of the unity of the human self. Furthermore, certain divine attributes or powers, such as Spirit, Word, and Wisdom, are distinguished and tend to be personalized and hypostatized. These terms refer to extensions of God's personal presence and powerful activity in relation to the world. They are not systematicallyrelated in the Old Testament, and they overlap in function. But they point to a differentiation in the Godhead that is to some extent analogous to the New Testament differentiation among the terms Father, Son, and Spirit. In the New Testament, the Old Testament terms Word and Wisdom are applied to Christ, and Old Testament texts concerning the Spirit of God are applied to the Holy Spirit. In other words, the New Testament authors were able to understand the relation of the Son and the Spirit to the Father in a way roughly analogous to how the Old Testament authors understood the relation of Word, Spirit, and Wisdom to Yahweh."

I chose the imagery of the Exodus from the Old Testament to say that we are liberated by our God, Christ, and that he brings us to freedom. In any event, I hope you enjoyed that poem "Pentecost Sunday Prayer" about the Holy Spirit bringing us a new freedom in Christ, liberating us. It is not my usual thing to make a sermon or homily in these notes, so I will stop here and let that poem posted previously speak for itself.