(Thomas Keating) The following principles represent a tentative effort to restate the Christian spiritual journey in contemporary terms.  They are designed to provide a conceptual background for the practice of prayer.  They should be read according to the method of LECTIO DIVINA:

1. The fundamental goodness of human nature, like the mystery of the Trinity, Grace, and the Incarnation, is a essential element of Christian faith.  This basic core of goodness is capable of unlimited development;  indeed, of becoming transformed into Christ and deified.

2. Our basic core of goodness is our true Self.  its center of gravity is God.  The acceptance of our basic goodness is a quantum leap in the spiritual journey.

3 God and our true Self are not separate.  Though we are not God, God and our true Self are the same thing.

4.  The term ORIGINAL SIN is a way of describing the human condition, which is the universal experience  of coming to full reflective self consciousness without the certitude of personal union with God.  This gives rise to our intimate sense of incompletion, dividedness, isolation, and guilt.

5. Original sin is not the result of personal wrongdoing on our part.  Still, it causes a pervasive feeling of alienation from God, from other people and from the true Self.  The cultural consequences of these alienations are instilled in us from earliest childhood and passed on from one generation to the nest.  The urgent need to escape from the profound insecurity of this situation gives rise, when unclecked, to insatiable desires for pleasure, possession, and power.  On the social level, it gives rise to violence, war, and institutional injustice.

6. The particular consequences of original sin include all the self-serving habits that have been woven into our personality from the time we were conceived;  all the emotional damage that has come from our early environment and upbringing;  al the harm that other people have dome to us knowingly or unknowingly at an age when we could not defend ourselves; and the method we acquired - many of them now unconscious - to ward off the pain of unbearable situations.

7. This constellation of prerational reactions is the foundation of the false self.  The false self develops in opposition to the true Self.  It is center of gravity is itself.

8. Grace is the presence and action of Christ at every moment of our lives;.  The sacraments are ritual actions in which Christ is present in a special manner, confirming and sustaining the major commitments of our Christian life.

9. In baptism, the false self is ritually put to death, the new self is born, and the victory over sin won by Jesus through his death and resurrection is placed at our disposal.  Not our uniqueness as persons, but our sence of separation from God and from others is destroyed in the death-dealing and life-giving waters of Baptism.

10. The Eucharist is the celebration of life:  The coming together of all the material elements of the cosmos, their emergence to consciousness in human persons and the transformation of human consciousness into Divine consciousness.  it is the manifestion of the Divine in and through the Christian community.  We receive the Eucharist in order to become the Eucharist.

11. In addition to being present in the sacraments, Christ is present in a spefcial manner in every crisis and important event of our lives.

12. Personal sin is the refusal to respond to Chrit's self-communication (grace).  It is the deliberate neglet of our own genuine needs and those of others.  It reinforces the false self.

13. Our basic core of goodness is dynamic and tends to grow of itself.  This growth is hindered by the illusions and emotional hang-ups of the false self, by the negative influences coming from our cultural conditioning, and by personal sin.

14. Listening to God's word in scripture and the liturgy, waiting upon God in prayer, and responsiveness to his inspirations help to distinguish how the two selves are operating in particular circumstances.

15.  God is not some remote, inaccessible, and implacable Being who demands instant perfection from His creatures and of whose love we must make ourselves worthy.  He is not a tyrant to be obeyed out of terror, nor a policemand who is evr on the watch, nor a harsh judge ever ready to apply the punishement and more and more on the basis of the grutuity - or the play of divine love.

16. Divine love is compassionate, tender, luminous, totally self-giving, seeking no reward, unifying everything.

17. The experience of being loved by God enable sus to accept our false self as it is, and then to let go of it and journey to our true Self.  The inward journey to our true Self is the way to divine love.

18.  The growing awareness of our true Self, along with the dep sense of spiritual peace and joy which flow from this experience, balances the psychic pain of the disintegrating and dying of the false self.  As the motivating power of the false self diminishes, our true Self builds the new self with the motivating force of divine love.

19.  The building of our new self is bound to be marked by innumerable mistakes and sometimes by sin.  Such failures, however serious, are insignificant compared to the inviolable goodnes of our true Self.  We should ask God's pardon, seek forgiveness from whose we may have offended, and then act with renewed confidence and energy as if nothing had happened.

20.  Prolonged, pervasive, or paralyzing guilt feelings come from the false self.  True guilt in response to personal sin or social injustice does not lead to discouragement but to amendment of life.  It is a call to conversion.

21.  Progress in the spiritual offers the support of example, correction, and mutual concern in the spiritual journey.  Above all, participating in the mystery of Christ through the celebratin of the liturgy, Eucharist, and silent prayer binds the community in a common search for transformation and union with God.  The presence of Christ is ministered to each other and becomens tangible in the community, especially when it is gathered for worship or engaged in some work of service to those in need.

23.  The moderation of the instinctual drives of the developing human organism for survival and security, affection and steen, control and power allows true human needs tocome into proper focus.  Primary among these needs is intimacy with another or several human persons.  By intimacy is meant the mutual sharing of thoughts, feelings, problems, and spiritual aspirations which gradually developw into spiritual friendship.