One of the best places to practice mediation/prayer/silence - is in a Cathedral. They are often open at various times where you can simply go sit in a holy and quiet place. One such a place is on Richards Street in downtown Vancouver - amazing Cathedrals such as The Holy Rosary Cathedral are all over the world - in the largest cities and the smallest towns. Records indicate that the first Mass at Holy Rosary Cathedral in Vancouver was said in it on Rosary Sunday, 1889. The church was later enlarged and a bell tower built. Built in the form of a cross, the Cathedral dimensions are: 161 feet long, 104 feet across at the transepts, 62 feet across the nave and the aisles, 62 feet from the floor ceiling, 217 feet to the top of the larger steeple. The Cathedral is blessed with having high quality works of art: besides the stained-glass windows, the Cathedral raised a new crucifix commissioned by His Grace Archbishop Miller completed and blessed in September of 2016. In February of 2020 the Cathedral acquired an antique painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe donated by Michael Audain, a local philanthropist and art collector. The painting is similar to the ‘The Four Apparitions’ of Nicolás Enríquez of 1773.

Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB recently gave a stunning Sunday morning oration on the wedding at Cana (also called the marriage at Cana, wedding feast at Cana or marriage feast at Cana) is a story in the Gospel of John at which the first miracle attributed to Jesus takes place. Archbishop Michael Miller, chief shepherd of Vancouver’s 430,000 Catholics since January 2009, has been part of the city’s religious landscape since 2007, when Pope Benedict XVI named him Coadjutor Archbishop. Besides English, Archbishop Miller is fluent in Spanish, Italian and French. He is a specialist on the papacy and modern papal teaching, about which he has written extensively, and has received seven honorary doctorates. CENTERING PRAYER - MEDITATION - QUIETING THE MIND For those not familiar with Centering Prayer, its beauty is that you don’t have to talk—or even think. That’s the point. You sit quietly in the formless presence of the Ultimate Self. What a relief to cease mental chatter or activity of any kind! You can literally do what the great Avatars recommend - Be still and repeat one question - "Who Am I?". One of the great teachers of prayer and mediation is Father Thomas Keating. Keating is the spiritual giant who helped originate this method in the late 1970s and has taught it to millions. Centering Prayer is probably the single-most prevalent meditative prayer approach practiced by evolving Christians today. Father Keating describes Centering Prayer this way: “The centering prayer method is simple: Find a quiet place to pray alone. Sit in silence with the goal of being with the divine. When you become aware of any thoughts or feelings, turn away from them and focus on a “sacred word” of your choosing. Let go of every kind of thought during prayer, even the most devout thoughts.” He famously said, “If Mary appears to you, tell her you are busy.” As Father Keating has further framed it, the goal of prayer is transcendence. The Emily Dahl Foundation January 20, 2024