CO Podcast 1-5: The Source of Centering Prayer, with Carmen Acevedo Butcher

“We need to love ourselves. Contemplation and Centering Prayer brought me self compassion. That’s healing and such joy. I will be grateful my entire life for that” - Carmen Acedvedo Butcher

On Today’s episode of "Opening Minds, Opening Hearts," we welcome internationally acclaimed speaker, author, poet and translator of spiritual texts, Carmen Acevedo Butcher. From a young age she immersed in the presence of prayer and her work has garnered interest from the BBC and NPR’s Morning Edition. Carmen has a linguistics background and holds degrees in medieval studies, and teaches at University of California, Berkeley. Today she shares her thoughts on Centering Prayer practice, self compassion, community with others, and how trauma can be turned into connection through meditation and contemplation.

What’s in this episode:
- Carmen shares how her religious background and love of the outdoors led to the natural progression from Lectio Divina, or spiritual reading, with meditation, prayer, and contemplation.
- Carmen shares that we don’t have to be whole but we can start on the path as we are, which brought her self-compassion.. She points out that Father Thomas Keeting’s repackaging of contemplative prayer from The Cloud of Unknowing makes it accessible to us today.
- Carmen explains that experience and understanding with our intellect are two different things and shares the differences and connections between meditation, contemplation, and Centering Prayer from her perspective.
- Self Compassion and invitation are the practice of Centering Prayer through trauma and desire for psychological healing. It is a relationship with God and transformative growing awareness of presence and how it might connect to depression and trauma.
- Carmen shares that the relationship with the divine is synonymous with people we meet and it opens our hearts up to be ongoingly broken in a way that is congruent with love.
- We must ask what meditation is to you? What are these practices to you? How we contemplate today differs from how we contemplate tomorrow. Not in the basics but making sure to stay open to the spirit happening.
- Through her translating she has recognized God who came out to embrace her and it made her want to go out and embrace the world. Contemplation has helped her find the gold in her shadow and be someone who matures and recognizes when she's done harm and wants to go out and atone.

“Centering Prayer is not so much an exercise of attention as intention. It may take a while to grasp this distinction. During Centering Prayer, you do not attend to any particular thought content. Rather, you intend to go to your inmost being, where you believe God dwells.” – Thomas Keating, "Open Mind Open Heart" 27

To connect further with Carmen Acevedo Butcher
- Visit her website: https://www.carmenbutcher.com/
- Visit her Linktree: https://linktr.ee/carmenacevedobutcher
- Check out her YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/CarmenAcevedoButcherPresence
- Carmen’s translations:
- Brother Lawrence’s Practice of the Presence (Broadleaf) now available on Audible
- The Cloud of Unknowing (Shambhala)

To connect further with us:
- Visit our website: www.contemplativeoutreach.org
- Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/contemplativeoutreachltd/
- Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/contemplativeoutreach
- Check out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/coutreach

This podcast is produced by Crys & Tiana LLC http://www.crysandtiana.com
For all episodes to date go to https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBE6fmRmYU8ibUaVp78jOu-krMYdH1v-C.

Stream and Download the Opening Minds, Opening Hearts Podcast NOW for FREE on Apple Podcast, Google, Amazon and Spotify!

Видео CO Podcast 1-5: The Source of Centering Prayer, with Carmen Acevedo Butcher канала coutreach