“When rightly understood, the parables help us to see how extraordinary a wisdom teacher Jesus really was, and how revolutionary, in the best sense of the word, was the content of what he taught and to which he bore witness by his life and death.

“These insights cohere particularly well with the actual experience of people on the spiritual journey. When contemplative prayer is seriously embraced, we come upon [a] lived reality … the reversal of expectations, the gradual and often painful liberation from emotional programs for happiness, and the increasing discovery of the kingdom of God in the ordinary and everyday.”
— Thomas Keating in the preface to Meditations on the Parables of Jesus

This self-guided, online course is based on teaching excerpts from Thomas Keating’s book, Meditations on the Parables of Jesus, which he once picked as his “best book.”

For more information and to register, Click Here. Partial scholarships may be obtained by filling out this form.

This self-guided e-course will explore the transformation of suffering as an evolutionary and transformative process in and through the divine/human experience — Christ in us, as us. The content will include excerpts from various Thomas Keating videos and writings, the wisdom of numerous contemplative witnesses and the practice of Visio Divina with the crucifix images of artist William Congdon.

Through a combination of email, video and audio teachings, you can expect:

A contemplative engagement with Scripture and liturgical themes of suffering
The use of music, art and personal stories as evocative invitations to reflect, respond and participate in your own process of understanding and transformation.
Mini-practices to support a contemplative life rooted in daily practice, silence, solitude, stillness, solidarity and service.

For information and to register, go here. Partial scholarships may be obtained by filling out this form.

In the back of Thomas Keating’s seminal book, Open Mind, Open Heart, published in 1986, he lists 42 guidelines which he described as a “tentative effort to restate the Christian spiritual journey in contemporary terms [and] provide a conceptual background for the practice of Centering Prayer.”  He also advised that they be read in the manner of Lectio Divina – in other words, not as information, but as prayer for revelation and inspiration from the Holy Spirit, and as a call to embodiment in daily life. Twenty-four years later, much evolved in the thinking and teaching of Thomas Keating and in the lived experience of the worldwide Centering Prayer community.  The intention of this course is to ponder and pray these guidelines together from a contemporary perspective.  Read more and register here with our partner, Spirituality & Practice.

Partial scholarships are available from Contemplative Outreach by filling out this form.