An ask-an-expert column in this week's Catholic paper speaks to the practice of centering prayer and the mixed reception it has in Catholic circles. It is a practice of eastern mysticism that has made its way into Christian contemplation. The expert speaks of the potential dangerousness of the practice and seems to imply that most who attempt the practice will end up in a place that is theologically unorthodox, that is, in an amorphous "melting into God" (quotes in the original) rather than "with the consciousness of one's own frailties in the face of God's majesty." The column composed of mostly definitive statements ends with somewhat of a caveat: "One needs to remember though, that the true contemplative experience of God in prayer comes only as a gift and can never be guaranteed by any particular technique."

How is it that any one tradition can so limit the experience of That Which is Beyond? If it is truly a gift, how can the recipient limit that gift once and for all time? How is it that the Roman Catholic contemplative is limited to a consciousness of his or her own frailties and is not permitted to experience his or her strength, beauty, and majesty in so far as the image of the Creator has been incorporated into the Created? The gift may well be to expand the notion of orthodoxy within any particular faith tradition.

If something is worth doing,
it is worth doing well.
Doing something well means doing something
as if one's life depends upon it,
because. . .it just might.