What the symbols relate to.
- Job Redeemer – Patient Waiting
- Alpha and Omega Symbol of God – the beginning and the end
- Cross Symbol of salvation
- Flowers Symbol of the abundance of life; the resurrection
- Circle Sign of ongoing process of the spiritual journey
Fr. Keating
The heart and soul of centering prayer is consent to God’s Indwelling Presence and action in our lives. The Alpha and Omega acknowledge that God always was and always will be omnipresent at the center of our being. The cross is a symbol of letting go or “dying” to our thoughts and commentaries.In the letting go of attachment to thoughts, our false self gives way to the flowering of the new self. This is an ongoing process, bringing us deeper into Divine Intimacy. Like Job, our patient waiting and consenting are our gifts of gratitude to God.This symbol has been seen in three different locations:On a church in the ancient land of Uz referenced in the Bible as the place where Job lived. Scripture references to Uz are found in Job 1:1, Jeremiah 25:20 and Lamentations 4:21.
Etched on a Byzantine stone uncovered in an excavation in Jerusalem at the southern wall of the Old City near the Huldah Gates by the original stairs to the temple.
On the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves in the Galilee area. The symbol is seen above the main entrance of the church. The Monastery and the Basilica, completed in 1984, are run by and order of Benedictines based in Germany
“The modern world lies under a pervasive sense of anguish, of being abandoned, or at least experiencing God as absent. Yet events that seem to turn our lives upside down and inside out are part of God’s redemptive plan, not only for us, but for the world in which we live. God may be preparing a great awakening for the world, if God can find enough people to cooperate in this mysterious plan.”
Thomas Keating