Dcn Anne Strong

My Dear Sisters and Brothers,

“The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and REPENTANCE for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name….” —Luke 24: 44-48

REPENTANCE or “metanoia” is translated “beyond the mind.” This state is not easy to achieve. Meditation, a way of screening out noise or egoic thinking, is the method I have chosen on my journey to reach this state of being. The total emphasis is upon SURRENDER. “Not my will but thine” is my prayer mantra.

Both Centering Prayer and meditation stress not clarity but SURRENDER of the heart, straight to what is called “point verge” (Cynthia Bourgeault) also called “mystical hope," mercy or divine love itself. It is where our sense of separateness melts and we become one in the heart of God, with the whole of humanity.

“The notion that God is absent is the fundamental illusion of the human condition.” —Thomas Keating

In Christ’s love,

—Dcn Anne