Chapter 8: Lighting the Lamps, The House with the Golden Window (5)

On Centering Prayer

Contemplation is not a means to an end. It is not even a goal sought for itself. It is so utterly simply that they very desire for it becomes an obstacle to achieving it. And when you achieve it, you haven't really achieved anything. You do not get some place where you were not. You are getting where you always really are: in the presence of God. You have achieved nothing. Yet you have achieved everything. For you have been transformed in consciousness so that you recognize yourself for who you really are. [William H. Shannon, Seeking the Face of God; qtd. Paul Harris, The Fire of Silence and Stillness, 16]

Image: Edward Hopper, Sun in an Empty Room