Contemplative Worship Experiences

Zen Meditation

Oakville Zen Meditation was founded in 2014 by Arnaud Painvin. We are meeting on Monday, Wednesday at 7 pm and Saturday at 10am at the church. These sessions are open to everyone without restriction. We practice mindfulness-based meditation for around 60 min. followed by a Dharma talk ( teaching ), and Q&A at the end. The main purpose of Zen meditation is learning to control our emotional mind in order to promote kindness, compassion, and love to everyone including self.

Contemplative Prayer

Sessions of contemplative, centering prayer are offered in person at the church in the Chapel and led by Arnaud Painvin and Rev. Jessica McCrae Wednesday mornings at 11 am. New participants are expected to join 10-15 min. before prayer for a short introduction.

Contemplative prayer or Meditative prayer is a silent prayer during which, by opening our awareness and heart, we listen to God’s grace and love, and experience God’s intimate presence, and teaching within our heart.

This method of prayer is both a way to bond and communicate with God’s grace but also a discipline to foster our relationship with God and to listen to God’s commands.

This is an opportunity to pray together, reflect on scripture and sacred words, and listen for and connect with the presence of God within us and around us during a time of silent prayer, before continuing on with our day.

Centering Prayer

Centering Prayer is offered by Joan Vinall-Cox online by Zoom on Tuesday evenings from 7- 8:30 pm. This group has been meeting regularly since 2001. Usually, after meditating for 20 minutes, followed by reading and discussion or watching relevant videos, there is time for chatting,

We hope one of these in person or online options will help you to grow in your spiritual life and spiritual practice. All are welcome.

For more information please contact the church office.

Please Join Us

A very helpful introduction on how to practice Christian Meditation

The Christian Contemplative Heritage

Fathers Thomas Keating, William Meninger and Basil Pennington began the Centering Prayer movement in the 1970’s to renew the Christian tradition of contemplation. This series, “The Christian Contemplative Heritage – Our Apophatic Tradition,” locates Centering Prayer in the mainstream of the Christian Contemplative Tradition which retrieved, reclaimed and reappropriated the classical inspirations of our apophatic tradition.

Where the Spirit Soars and the Heart Finds a Home

Serving the Oakville, Ontario community andall those looking for a place to find Christ either in person or Online.

Richard Rohr Speaks on Christianity

THOMAS KEATING’S SUGGESTED ORIENTATION PRAYER FOR CENTERING;

Lord, we adore you
present in our inmost being
and among us.

Draw us inwardly
by the greatness of your love,
so that we may taste that peace
which surpasses all understanding;

and that, little by little, we might understand
what it means to be lived in by God

Heal the wounds of a lifetime,
body, soul, and spirit,

as we wait lovingly
upon your Presence
and healing action within us.

Richard Rohr

Prayer for Our Community:

O Great Love, thank you for living and loving in us and through us. May all that we do flow from our deep connection with you and all beings. Help us become a community that vulnerably shares each other’s burdens and the weight of glory. Listen to our hearts’ longings for the healing of our world. [Please add your own intentions.] . . . Knowing you are hearing us better than we are speaking, we offer these prayers in all the holy names of God, amen.

If you’d like to understand how meditation works, here’s a short article:
https://www.wildmind.org/blogs/news/three-lies-and-a-half-truth

Here is a summary of the contemporary practice of Centering Prayer – https://cac.org/centering-prayer-weekly-summary-2017-02-18/

To learn more about our practice, you can watch these videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1443&v=eYDVGWhaqGk

One of the best ways to get to know what it is about is by getting in touch with group co-ordinator Joan Vinall-Cox – joan . vinallcox @ gmail . com (no spaces) and coming to our meetings.

We open our awareness to the Ultimate Mystery whom we know by faith is within us, closer than breathing, closer than thinking, closer than choosing, closer than consciousness itself. The Ultimate Mystery is the ground in which our being is rooted, the source from whom our life emerges