Thursday, January 05, 2012

does it matter where the finger is pointing?

From an interview in an Alaska Catholic newspaper, Fr. William Meninger talks about Centering Prayer.
http://www.catholicanchor.org/wordpress/archives/5537

How do the creeds and dogmas of the church bear on the practice of contemplative prayer? Does it matter whether the practitioner denies essential elements of the faith?
Does it matter where the finger is pointing? If you want to go to the moon and the finger is pointing to the moon, you’re great. But if you want to go to the moon and the finger is pointing to the North Star, you are in trouble.

2 comments:

claire bangasser said...

Thank you for this interview. It is most relevant for me.
I attended a four day retreat at our parish in Geneva with Fr.Meninger years ago...
Thank you again.

beth said...

I have seen a video series of Fr. Meninger from the 90s teaching the Cloud of Unknowing and Centering Prayer. He is a very special teacher! Something poetic about him, I think.