Join us at Grace for Centering Prayer Wednesdays @ 12:00 pm following Eucharist @ 11:30, in-person. For more information about Centering Prayer go to https://www.contemplativeoutreachbirmingham.org/
Thomas Keating, O.C.S.O. (March 7, 1923 – October 25, 2018) was an American Catholic monk and priest of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (also known as Trappists). Keating was known as one of the principal developers of Centering Prayer, a contemporary method of contemplative prayer that emerged from St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts.
In 1984 Keating, along with Gustave Reininger and Edward Bednar, co-founded Contemplative Outreach, Ltd., an international and ecumenical spiritual network that teaches the practice of Centering Prayer and Lectio Divina, a method of prayer drawn from the Christian contemplative tradition. Contemplative Outreach provides a support system for those on the contemplative path through a wide variety of resources, workshops, and retreats.
What is Centering Prayer?
Centering Prayer is a method of silent prayer that prepares us to receive the gift of contemplative prayer. In Centering Prayer prayer we experience God’s presence within us, closer than breathing, closer than thinking, closer than consciousness itself. This method of prayer is both a relationship with God and a discipline to foster that relationship.
Centering Prayer is not meant to replace other kinds of prayer. Rather, it adds depth of meaning to all prayer and facilitates the movement from more active modes of prayer — verbal, mental or affective prayer — into a receptive prayer of resting in God. Centering Prayer emphasizes prayer as a personal relationship with God and as a movement beyond conversation with Christ to communion with Him.
The source of Centering Prayer, as in all methods leading to contemplative prayer, is the Indwelling Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The focus of Centering Prayer is the deepening of our relationship with the living Christ. The effects of Centering Prayer are ecclesial, as the prayer tends to build communities of faith and bond the members together in mutual friendship and love.
Opening Minds, Opening Hearts Podcast
Opening Minds, Opening Hearts is a podcast for both the curious meditator and long-time practitioner of Centering Prayer. During each episode, hosts Colleen Thomas and Mark Dannenfelser will reflect on the method of Centering Prayer and the teachings of Thomas Keating with some friends from the contemplative community who share their personal experience of encountering God through the prayer, and through their work in the world. The podcast provides new perspectives on the future of contemplative prayer in the context of the evolution of culture, technology, and consciousness.
In season four, we return to conversations about the practice of Centering Prayer, which Thomas Keating calls “the divine therapy” that “heals the emotional wounds of a lifetime.” In Centering Prayer we are invited into “the office of the Divine Therapist,” and offered the gift of healing, “the divine remedy.”
Our conversations this season are with a diverse group of Centering Prayer practitioners and friends of Contemplative Outreach – psychotherapists, spiritual directors, members of the 12-step community, and Enneagram practitioners, each with their own healing journey experiences and insights they’ve gained while companioning others on the journey of healing and awakening.
Join us this season as we take the posture of student, friend, and listener. We hope you will open your mind and heart to the wisdom of the Divine Therapist and receive the fruits of this transformative practice of Centering Prayer.
For more information and to listen to the podcast click the button below.