He died at St Joseph's Abbey, Massachusetts, where he had been abbot from 1961 to 1981.

In the early 1980s Keating began his role as one of the chief architects of the contemporary practice of meditative prayer, which allows one to rest in the presence of God.

This form of silent prayer is now known as centering prayer.

During the early 1980s, the growing popularity of centering prayer led to Keating directing retreats and workshops worldwide. That networking, in turn, sparked widening interest in organisational and educational structuring.

Out of that grew Contemplative Outreach Ltd, which was officially incorporated in 1986. Keating was its first president.

Keating was internationally acclaimed for his extensive writing, lecturing and teaching on both meditative prayer and on interfaith discourse.

He spearheaded the formation of the Snowmass Interreligious Conferences in late 1983. These were a yearly gathering of major figures of various religious backgrounds that ran for three decades.

According to a website by Rabbi Hennoch Dov , Keating invited "deep practitioners" from Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Native American and Islamic traditions to the Snowmann conferences to connect, compare notes and clarify. One result has been to distill some profound points of agreement shared by each of the participants.

In a press statement responding to Keatings' death, Contemplative Outreach expressed the organisation's deep sorrow at "the passing of our beloved teacher and spiritual father."

"He modeled for us the incredible riches and humility borne of a divine relationship that is not only possible but is already the fact in every human being.

"Such was his teaching, such was his life. He now shines his light from the heights and the depths of the heart of the Trinity."

Contemplative Outreach is planning to hold a 24-hour, worldwide prayer vigil.

Source

• America Magazine
• New York Times
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: YouTube

Writing in an integrated schools newsletter, Fr Peter Murphy stated that Christianity is at a crossroads.

Fr Murphy wrote that the New Zealand bishops' document "The Catholic Education of School-Age Children" last year came as a wakeup call for the Church in this country.

This was especially in the realisation that, "despite the success of our schools, we were producing predominantly cultural Catholics and not followers of Jesus Christ".

"Our young people are being educated in a very secular world which, in many instances, is hostile to anything that smacks of religion and where conventional religious words carry little weight," Fr Murphy continued.

"On the other hand there is, in the words of St Augustine, this restlessness in the human heart to search for the transcendent.

"The challenge for us as Church is to find a new language that speaks to the restless heart, especially among the young."

Fr Murphy, of Papakura parish, suggested a return to the "foundation" of the "practice of contemplative prayer, to which all followers of Jesus are called", as a way forward.

The call to contemplative prayer needs to be taken seriously, he wrote.

"In the years that I have been meditating with children in our schools I have become very aware that the retaining of a Catholic Christian character lies very much in the spiritual development of the teachers.

"Unless there is equal emphasis given to spiritual formation of teachers (not just children) the religious (curriculum) development remains just a head trip."

Fr Murphy recommended the example of Townsville diocese, which has implemented the practice of Christian meditation throughout the school system.

"It would be excellent to see such a programme implemented New Zealand-wide. Are there any visionary leaders ready to take this on?" he asked.

Sources

• Good News and The News
• NZCBC
• Image: Father James.org

This small, red, leather-bound volume with its beautiful calligraphy is now on exhibit and is reputed to be the oldest intact book in all of Europe. The library purchased the volume from the British Jesuits for the equivalent of $14 million.

The origins of these two English national treasures lead one far from the bustle of London to Northumbria, hemmed in by Scotland to the north and the turbulent sea to the east. It was in the early seventh century that the Anglo-Saxon King Oswald invited Aidan, a monk from the island of Iona, to evangelize his people.

Aidan, later called the "Light of Northumbria" founded a primitive Christian community of monks on a small island in the North Sea. Their island, some three miles in length and a mile wide, is Lindisfarne, later called Holy Isle, a place of retreat, a haven in a brutal world. From this outpost on the edge of the civilized world these monks spread the Gospel among the ancestors of the English people.

A journey to Lindisfarne is neither easy nor simple. To get there today one can travel by rail some three and a half hours north of London, skirting the walled city of York, bypassing the cathedral city of Durham to the west, calling at the coal-rich city of Newcastle Upon Tyne, and disembarking finally at the seaside town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, three miles south of the Scottish border. From there it is another eight miles to the island by any form of transport one can find. This rural countryside is green and lush. Sheep are ubiquitous and castles dot the landscape, reminders of the warfare that was for centuries endemic to this borderland.

One approaches Lindisfarne with caution. Much like Mont Saint-Michel off the coast of Normandy, it is the sea that rules here. It is perilous to ignore its tides. Twice a day the fast-rising waters of the North Sea flood the mile and a half causeway that joins the island to the mainland. Tide times and the corresponding crossings are posted everywhere, and locals in Berwick and the 150 permanent residents of the island organize their lives around them. Read more

Sources

• Dana Greene in National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Wikipedia