Retreat Practice at 8,000 Feet, Pat Johnson

From the podcast series "All Things Contemplative," episode 7, by Ron Barnett. Ron interviews Pat Johnson. In 1982 Pat and family moved to the Lama Foundation in New Mexico and there two months later she met Fr. Thomas Keating. She served then as the Lama liaison for two 16-day Centering Prayer retreats that he led at Lama in 1983 and again in 1984. These were the first intensive contemplative practice retreats in the Christian tradition using Centering Prayer and inspired by Zen sessions he'd experienced. In 1984 Pat served an experimental 9-week retreat Fr. Keating led at St. Benedict’s Monastery in Snowmass, CO where he was a monk. This began the Snowmass Centering Prayer retreats at the monastery. From 1984 until 2018, Pat served and oversaw these retreats, which continued into 2023 when the monastery closed. She has also served as a Board member of CO and was its overall interim administrator for several years.