The Sacred Breath of God

"Deep Breath" by MelanieWeidner

“God’s breath it was that made me; the breathing of God … gave me life.”  

  ~Job 33:41

I recently told a friend that I thought the centering prayer movement is experiencing a beautiful new flowering. Later, the word that emerged was deepening. This “deepening-flowering” is, in good part, an effect of the spirit-led work of David Frenette, the contemplative teacher, writer, counselor, and spiritual director who led a weekend retreat with 80+ participants this past November 2012 at San Rafael Catholic church in Rancho Bernardo.

Frenette is a long-time practitioner of centering prayer. In his wonderful new book, The Path ofCentering Prayer: Deepening Your Experience of God, he explains how he encountered the mystery of God as a child: “In my dreams, I sensed that my life held a meaning deeper than any meaning society could provide . . . after waking, I felt a deep, radiant, unifying stillness in the night’s silence.” At the time, he had no religious language that would enable him to call that reality God or Christ, and these events faded from memory. But at age 19, his memories re-emerged and triggered an intense search for meaning. He came across a book on centering prayer and began practicing it daily. As his life “became a path of responding to the loving mystery” that he “learned to name God,” he signed up for a two-week retreat, where he met Fr. Thomas Keating. The two became great friends; Frenette came to see Keating as a mentor and spiritual father. In the thirty-odd years since that first intensive retreat, Frenette has been deeply engaged with contemplative community and service.

One of Frenette’s talents is concision and clarity. Observe how he distinguishes contemplation and centering prayer in his book: “Centering prayer and contemplation are often seen as two ends of a continuum. Centering prayer is at the active end of the continuum, where your actions predominate. Contemplation is at the receptive end of the continuum, where God’s actions predominate.” During the retreat, he defined contemplative prayer as “a prayer of wordless presence.” And Frenette’s presence and demeanor-- calm, warm, receptive, humble, unhurried, inquiring, gently humorous – conveyed a radiantly contemplative stance in daily life. 

One goal of Frenette’s presentation was to invite practitioners to try, if only for a weekend, a variation on the sacred symbol in centering prayer. We are familiar with the basic guidelines on centering prayer – first we choose a short sacred word as the symbol of our intention to consent to God’s presence and action; we then silently “say” it as we begin the prayer itself; thirdly, we ever-so-gently re-say the word when we notice we are engaged with thoughts. During introductory centering prayer workshops – or through Keating’s books – practitioners soon learn that a word is not the only form the sacred symbol can take: some might prefer using the “sacred breath” or the “sacred glance” to express their intention to consent. However, the explanation on these alternatives has been fairly limited – until now. Through his book and his teachings, Frenette intricately explains how one might use and deepen the sacred word as well as the sacred breath and the sacred glance (and other alternative symbols) during centering prayer.

As Frenette pointed out, practitioners often find that their use of the sacred symbol naturally evolves over time. The sacred word can become fainter or disappear; it may even “say itself” beyond our choosing to. Moreover, Frenette maintains, a totally different sacred symbol might be more suitable for a different season of one’s spiritual journey. Since our walk with God deepens over time, we do not need to cling to just one way of doing centering prayer – a way that may no longer reflect how we relate to the great Mystery.

The sacred breath, for instance, can help to bring centering prayer more fully into the body – allowing the practice to deepen into a contemplative prayer that is integrated with one’s active, physical life. For many, the breath allows for a more natural way to be receptive and present – in contrast to a repeated word, which might keep some people feeling trapped in concepts or “in their heads.” The breath serves as a rich symbol because it is ever-present and effortlessly within us, like God is, explained Frenette. Teresa of Avila once said, “All difficulties in prayer can be traced to one thing: praying as if God were absent.” With the breath, however, prayer may more readily proceed in, through, and with the presence of God. Frenette offered an example of how this practice assisted a client of his whose husband had recently died. The woman found that changing from the sacred word to the sacred breath enabled her to connect with unexpressed emotions that were held in her body. In effect, the sacred breath helped her to sink in to her sadness and process her grief in the presence of a God who, as the Cloud of Unknowing states, “can well be loved but not thought.”

Frenette guided the retreatants through two experiences of centering prayer with the sacred breath. He began by inviting us to use our sacred word, or whatever symbol we were accustomed to using. Then, gently, (ever-so-gently!) he suggested that we simply let go of our word – similar to the way we let go of a thought that has engaged us. Or: we could let our word simply be along-side our breathing. In a slow, dip-the-toe-in-the-pool fashion, we were invited to notice our breath, and then to allow the breath to become, even if momentarily, our expression of consent to God’s presence – regardless of what our more established word or symbol was “doing.” We were encouraged simply “let be,” and to welcome what occurred – even if what occurred was our own resistance.

There is so much more I could say about this weekend – so many more wonderful stories that were shared, questions that were responded to, and various other illuminations. Here are just a few highlights:

Prayer bumps: Frenette coined the phrase “prayer-bump” to describe “an everyday opportunity to stop, pause, and pray.” One can use an ordinary event in daily life (traffic, events in the news, and so on) as a reminder to slow down, pause, and pray to God. It’s a way to bless a moment, and a day, with more intention.

Contemplative dread: More seasoned practitioners might experience a profound sense of doom as they approach the death of the “separate-self sense” that has been so much a part of our human condition. Sensing its own death, the false self retreats from God.  Frenette suggests that we open up and allow God to touch us in this human experience – for this is a transformative moment. We can step off this “cliff” of dread and trust that a bridge will emerge.

Apparent obstacles in prayer: One of the biggest obstacles to transformation is the mistaken belief that “we are not getting anywhere.” There is actually nowhere to go but here! God can turn every obstacle into an aid for spiritual growth when we relax our hard grip on surface-level details and open up to God’s eternal presence within the suffering and the struggle. As Jean-Pierre du Caussade wrote, “Without God everything is nothing. With God nothing is everything.”

Humor: The words “human,” “humility,” and “humor” have the same Indo-European root.  According to Frenette’s mentor, Fr. Keating, “there is no sanctity without humor.” Laughter allows the light in. And do you know what the centering prayer police officer’s favorite saying is? – “You have the right to remain silent.”

Ever-so-gentle: Frenette told a story about how Fr. Keating felt the guidelines to the centering prayer practice needed to be revised. “We have to stop stressing gentleness with the sacred word,” Keating said. “Instead, people should be ever-so-gentle when they turn back to their sacred symbol in consent to God.” Practitioners can sometimes become very rigid and hard on themselves in their daily prayer practice. They should instead be ever-so-gentle, simply allowing themselves to be found by God, and easing into a “homeward-turning love.”

A final comment: If you have not already, read David Frenette’s book, The Path of CenteringPrayer. I suspect it will inform and liberate your practice in surprising ways. Fr. Thomas Keating, with gracious humility, describes Frenette’s work as “the best, most comprehensive, and most practical book on centering prayer.” I also agree with Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault, who writes “this is an important moment in the centering prayer lineage tradition, when a faithful student emerges into mastery…I have found my own practice much illumined by this book.” And the next time the opportunity arises, attend one of David Frenette’s presentations. Your cup will overflow.