Hello, everyone, and welcome back to day six. Today I want to talk about some of the fruits and benefits of the transformation that happens when we enter into this contemplative journey. I want to explore this in three parts in today's presentation. The first is through the power of story. tell a little bit about how I entered the contemplative stream and what this has been like for me in this ongoing transformation. Talk a little bit about how the primary transformation here is a deepening relationship with God, especially through thinking about the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

And then finally, I want to say a little bit about some of the measurable changes through scientific observations and self report measures that people have used. I've really come to believe that stories, hearing others stories, telling our own stories is really at the heart of the healing and transformation that can happen on the contemplative journey. I want to pick up my own story in my junior year of college. And I was really introduced and drawn into the contemplative stream within Christianity by the monks at St. John's Abbey in collegeville, Minnesota, and the sisters at the College of St. Benedict, St. Benedict's monastery in St. Joseph, Minnesota. And it was in my junior year that I took a class with Sister Mary on the Benedictine tradition. And she had us do both lectio Divina and centering prayer in the classroom.

And it's really hard to explain, but it was like something deep was touched in that experience. And I was just drawn into needing and wanting to really practice and go deeper with this. And that has really guided In fact, a lot of my own career choice, to study theology and to study this contemplative tradition. Up until now, around that same time I met father mark a monk at St. John's who really became the first of what would become many spiritual teachers and guides on my path and introduced me to some classic readings in the contemplative tradition and became what I now know would be now no would be called a spiritual director. So, I really dove into and centering prayer has been kind of my core, silent non discursive practice. And the recommendation was centering prayer and with all these other practices in terms of a formal practice, is to aim for twice a day for 20 minutes of sitting and doing whatever practice one is engaged in.

Now I will be the first to admit that, especially at this stage in my life with a career and young kids and family and wife that I rarely Meet 20 minutes twice a day, the time that I was most regularly engaged in that practice was in my early 20s. And that was actually a pretty difficult time. For me. I've always struggled with anxiety. But that period was particularly tough, struggling with anxiety and probably the time that I really struggled with depression the most. And at that point, I really was practicing 20 minutes twice a day.

And in retrospect, I can see how that laid a foundation for some of the healing that I have since found. There are a lot of other benefits that I could talk about in terms of deepening my own faith or understanding of God. And I'll say more about that tomorrow, actually, for now, I want to mention that, as of today, one of the greatest benefits that I find is that amid a really busy teaching and writing and traveling and trying to publish scheduled reading three young kids. The biggest benefit that I noticed when I'm regularly engaged in my practice is the ability to be present. I'm able to be present to my wife, to my children, even when there's a lot going on, to kind of focus and give them that attention, and then even to be present to my work when I need to be, but to be able to turn it off and say, you know, now is the time of day where I really want to and need to be present to my family, which is ultimately more important.

And of course, being present to and aware of the presence of God within all of that. So that's probably the primary benefit at this point. And I find that when I'm doing a regular practice, I can keep that presence and awareness in mind a little bit longer, or perhaps I'm not keeping it perhaps it is able to stay there a bit longer. And when I get away from my practice, I start to feel a lot more frazzled and distracted and not present. So that's a very brief summary of my story. But I do think those personal stories are important for us to share.

And in fact, I invite you to share whatever you feel like have your own story and transformation on the discussion board after this PowerPoint presentation as well. Recall that contemplation is essentially saying yes or consenting to God's will and divine indwelling by creating silence and an interior space of freedom, where God desires to send love, Grace and healing. As we repeatedly offer our consent, especially through our return to our use of a sacred word, a mantra or phrase from scripture or the Jesus prayer. God begins to work a deep transformation that touches our entire body, mind and soul, down to the very core of our being. The fruits of this transformation are quite subtle. Sometimes almost imperceptible to us.

In fact, it's not uncommon for others such as a partner, a spouse, a child, a close friend or business associate, to start to notice changes before we do. Paul captures this change in his list of the fruits of the Spirit and Galatians five. He lists them as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. One of the great moments that I've observed in myself and I love observing and others on this contemplative journey is when we begin to notice these fruits of the subtle changes, really infusing into our daily lives, even amid what is often a very busy, chaotic or frenetic schedule and daily life. We begin to live out of this interior silence where These fruits start to take root and grow. To walk the earth with an ever deeper awareness of these gifts, as God offers them in every moment of existence is a classic hallmark of contemplative transformation.

So I invite you just to pay attention to the quality of your daily life because you might start to notice these moments where the fruits and the gifts of the Holy Spirit are really dwelling in this silent space, even amidst running around taking the kids to practice, getting going to the gym, getting your work done, all of these things that make up the modern life that most of us lead. I want to say a little bit about some of the measurable benefits and what is a pretty quickly growing body of literature of scientific studies on the effects of anything ranging from a kind of basic mindfulness practice all the way to more theological or faith based forms of contemplative prayer. And I want to just note that this is not meant to be an exhaustive list, that we have to be sort of careful and tentative about the conclusions that we can draw.

But I do think that these findings in science are pretty interesting and provide some real tangible proof of the deeper transformation that the mystics and contemplative speak of in their own subjective experience. I want to draw this quote from Andrew Newberg, who has developed this field that he's calling neuro theology. He's actually a medical doctor. And he writes about the growing body of research that reveals activities involving meditation and intensive prayer permanently strengthen neural functioning in specific parts of the brain that are involved with lowering anxiety and depression. Enhance social awareness and empathy and improving cognitive and intellectual functioning. So perhaps in more layman's terms, lower stress and feelings of depression, making us feel more connected to others and to God and more empathetic and compassionate and improving our ability to think and to focus.

The neural circuits activated by meditation buffer you from the deleterious effects of aging and stress and give you better control over your emotions. In fact, this emotional control might be one of the things that others around you might first pick up on that little things that may be used to trigger you or drive you crazy start to have a little less power. Another very interesting study followed participants in a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Program our mbsr over a period of four weeks and found it Interesting both subjectively reported that is what people answered on like a self report survey, and more objective measures through studies of biological markers of the body. So let's note just a few of these people self reported a 12% reduction in anxiety systems after four weeks of this program, they were able to measure a shift from the right side of the brain to the left prefrontal cortex.

And this is significant because scientists have noted that higher activity in the right side of the brain compared to the left is correlated with higher levels of depression and anxiety. So a shift towards the left prefrontal cortex should also correlate them with lower levels of anxiety and depression. Now on an objective level, after these four weeks, they notice A three times increase in activity measured in the left prefrontal cortex. That's on an objective level on a subjective level, this would be experienced as a decrease in what psychologists would call a negativity bias. The negativity bias is our tendency to notice the negative things and ignore the good things. So if that increases, we're tuning out more of the negative and focusing more on the positive.

Finally, another fascinating part of this study is they found that compared to a control group, after this for weeks, they were each group was given the flu vaccine and that those in the mbsr group, their bodies produced 5% more antibodies against the flu vaccine. So some pretty interesting stuff happening and this is just mindfulness. Practice without any kind of contemplative prayer component added on to it. And one more that I'll note comes from a study done in 2014 by Raymond Neubauer, taking functional MRI scan. So this picture here is a picture taken from Andrew Newberg website of a functional MRI that shows the parts of the brain that are lit up in red as more active. And in this study newbauer found that when a person is engaged in prayer reveals an increased brain activity in the regions associated with communicating with a significant other person.

So you can see that red spot in the language center here from the picture from Newberg, that from the standpoint of the brain. One is there is no difference between talking with another person and the communion with God that is experienced in contemplative prayer. All right, I'm coming back to one of my favorite points and practical tips is that short, regular practice is the most effective don't wait and Until you have an hour, half an hour, even 20 minutes, practice when you can even for short amounts of time. In one study conducted by Aidan and another group of scientists in 2010, they found measurable results, both objective and subjective after just four consecutive days of a 20 minute practice measurable results in four days and 20 minutes. So imagine multiplying a regular practice over days, weeks, months and years, the results start to really pile up.

Alright, so I've told a little bit more of my story. I've talked about deepening one's relationship with God. We've looked at some of the scientific literature on this. So what are some takeaways that we can take I want to offer two for today. The first is that we are deeply storytelling creatures and animals. If you recall way back in the beginning, I noted that contemplative prayer in the Christian tradition is deep rooted in Scripture.

So one way of thinking about alexio. And then contemplative prayer that unfolds out of that is that we're literally literally reading our own stories of our lives into God's story of salvation. In the story of God's activities on behalf of humankind, that are in Scripture, theologians would call this salvation history, all the things that God has done, to reach out to humankind, in love, from creation, through the covenants all the way up until the person of Jesus Christ and up until today. telling our stories is deeply healing. And in part, it's healing because it's done in a relational context. And that's the second point I want to talk about.

We are deeply relational creatures. This is reflected on a theological level as the divine indwelling of Trinitarian love. If you are not familiar with Christian theology, Trinity is the three persons that make up the Godhead of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So Jesus Christ, or the son is for the Christian, the image of the invisible God, as it stated in Colossians. So Jesus, the person of Jesus as we encounter it in Scripture, and in sacrament becomes that face that entering point of God. And the Holy Spirit is the indwelling breath or spirit of God.

Fact the word ruak in Hebrew, and paranoia and Greek, mean both breath and spirit. So the Holy Spirit is the divine breath or the divine indwelling Spirit of God. And on the relational level, there's the inward movement, the divine indwelling that is then correlated with at the same time and outward active love for all of creation. Thanks again for tuning in. And tomorrow we'll go even deeper into the contemplative theology that undergirds contemplative prayer in day seven