About

WHO WE ARE:

The Inner Room is a community that beckons and invites all to enter the deepened prayer space discussed by Jesus in Matthew 6:6. Not to prove ourselves, but to discover who we are in Christ. As we spend more time in our Inner Room, we allow God to work on our hearts and minds — fostering spiritual maturity — transfiguring us into the Body of Christ. So the community of The Inner Room is a place not of knowledge but of wisdom. It is a place not to prove ourselves, but to discover who we are in Christ. We are a Roman Catholic private lay association. We seek to be a resource for the Church. Since deepened prayer and contemplation is a unifying spiritual practice, we also seek respectful engagement and dialogue with people in all other Churches and Christian communities as well as people in other religious traditions or in no religious tradition at all.

OUR VISION

BEHOLDING THE INVISIBLE Beholding is an ancient Christian activity that is neither active nor passive. It is a sacred space of lovingly turning to God in Pure Prayer. It is God transfiguring our words of prayer into the Silence and Stillness of “Unceasing Prayer” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Beholding is part of the ancient practice of participating in the Vision of God through the gift of contemplation.
DIALOGUING WITH SILENCE Dialoguing indicates the words about God (the literal meaning of theology) that comes from the space of Beholding. It is theology that is not about knowing but about a “learned unknowing” or wisdom that leads to a practice of the faith. Theology that comes from beholding is much more creative, poetic. The words and images from a dialogue with silence lead to an ever deepening beholding.
IMAGINING THE REAL Imagining the Real is about incarnating or embodying the results of Beholding and Dialoguing. To imagine is to embody the abstract into the concrete, to make an image of what previously only existed as a concept. It is about participation in the love of God through love and service in the world.

ACTIVITIES WE OFFER

To support those who wish to strengthen their faith by walking the path of Christian contemplation, The Inner Room runs multiple programs and distributes media in various formats. Specifically the activities we engage in are:

Retreats and workshops as well as organized periods of communal silence both online and in person; we have associations with various retreat spaces and churches where we hold consistent periods of communal silent prayer.

Prayer and Support for deepening one’s entrance into Silent Beholding

Lectures, conferences, blog posts and other teachings in various formats both online and in person that allow for a deepened understanding of the faith and linking one into even deeper prayer. We focus not on informational content but instead on opening to the teachers in scripture and the tradition as well as the sacraments and liturgy.

Exploration of the Christian Wisdom Tradition

Opportunities to engage in love and service in the world following the rich tradition of Catholic Social Teaching; as a member of Pax Romana, being a connection to a wider network of other lay organizations involved in Social Justice work throughout the world.

Linking Action in the world with our contemplative practices