Macky Alston reviews the film Father Thomas Keating: The Contemplative Life

Father Thomas Keating: The Contemplative Life

St. Benedict’s Monastery in Snowmass, Colorado, is the lovely spiritual setting for a beautifully filmed meditation with Cistercian priest, monk and abbot Father Thomas Keating on a practice he calls “centering prayer.” The goal of centering prayer is to let go of self-interest and to surrender to God, and Keating serves as a luminous example of one who has committed his life to this discipline. At the center of this film and Keating’s life is the sense of God’s constant love, that, if received, heals us and inspires us to heal others.

Father Keating’s meditations are interspersed with images of daily monastic rituals and commentary from his brothers at St. Benedict’s Monastery. Life there is “a process,” and, in the words of Father Keating, the daily rituals of a Trappist monk involve “…a friendship going on with Christ that is tangible, not a one-way street.”

If one listens, Father Keating says, one will be invited to receive “the divine hospitality” of God. In The Contemplative Life, Keating quotes 16th century mystic, St. John of the Cross, who wrote: “Human health depends on the continuous awareness of God’s presence.”

Completed: 2004
Running Time: 60 Minutes
Producer: Kathy Close
Technical Director/Editor: Michael Gleaton
Camera Operator: Peter Hutchison

If you are interested in purchasing this film, you can do so at the Hartley Film Foundation’s Web site, www.hartleyfoundation.org. Just click on “Great Minds” on the homepage for more information.  The cost is $24.95 for a VHS copy and $29.95 for a DVD copy of the film.

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