Tomorrow I will travel to Mt. Saviour Monastery in Pine City, New York. I spent a couple of days there in February. I found it inviting and in that spirit I feel invited again to spend a couple of days there. Today I found some connections between the founder of Mt. Saviour, Fr. Damasus Winzen and the Orthodox Church. Fr. Damasus is remembered in a special way on the Orthodox June Sanctoral calendar. In reading more about the founder of Mt. Saviour I was drawn to the writings of Brother David Steindl-Rast, who once was a member of the Mt. Saviour Community. Brother David has devoted much of his life to the practice of gratefulness and he equates gratefulness to “Trinitarian mysticism in action.” In my reading today I came across some posts from Brother David and others at Monastic Reflections on Zazen. I’ve done some reading on Zazen and recently as part of my Lenten devotion intentionally spent time each day sitting in centering prayer.
It was no mistake that I should find this website just prior to my pilgrimage to Mt. Saviour. It is interesting that one of the core concepts of the Alcoholics Anonymous program is grateful living. Gratitude is a powerful spiritual force. Brother David has great website at Gratefulness.org.
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gratefulness, zazen, centering prayer, damasus winzen