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CENTERING PRAYER
In August 1998, seeking solace, a change, something to lift my
battered spirit, I attended a Workshop and Retreat organised by
the World Community of Christian Meditation. Fr Laurence
Freeman led the retreat; Fr Thomas Keating the workshop. I had
never heard of Fr. Keating before this but as I listened to him
what he said resonated with me and I knew that I had found the
contemplative teaching and practice that I had been looking for.
I read several of his books and in August 1999, I took part in a
10 day post intensive retreat at his Retreat Center near the
Cistercian Monastery in Snowmass, Colorado. I have not looked
back since. By January 2000 I was teaching Centering Prayer.
Those who see the course of life as a series of accidents are
free to do so. I see a purposeful Hand guiding and directing.
It was not that Centering Prayer was my first experience of
meditation. I had for over twenty years practised a Buddhist
method of the breath which is virtually the same method as that
of Centering Prayer. So, what is the difference?
I think that there are four essential differences:
(1)
First, Fr. Keating’s Contemplative Outreach provided me with a
sound theoretical context for the practice of Centering Prayer
and meditation needs a solid theoretical context. Moreover it
was a context that was within my own religious tradition and I
had been searching for several years for a Christian
Contemplative teaching and method that would speak to me.
Centering Prayer did.
(2)
The second difference has to do with intention. I had originally
come to meditation as a way of balancing a nervous temperament
unable to cope with the stress of life and the stress of my
particular stage of development. I had continued with it for
much the same reason. It served me well. With Centering Prayer
the intention shifted and the focus was more directly about ever
deepening relationship with God.
(3)
Third, the very method of Centering Prayer is a continual
reminder to be attentive to God’s Presence and Action. We let
go to the Divine Presence and Action within us. We rest in that
Presence in the depth of our being and as a necessary corollary
become increasingly aware of God’s Presence and Action in our
lives and in the world around us. The world pulsates with the
living God.
(4)
The fourth factor is that of participation in a community of
people – all seeking God; all with the same intention of
deepening relationship with God; all committed to the same
spiritual practice. We need companions on the journey! I thank
God for you.
As I reflect on these past eight years and on the growing
numbers of those who practise Centering Prayer, I find it
intriguing that the quest for God has brought together groups of
very different people in Silent Prayer; people who remain
faithful over time to a practice that in itself brings little or
no pleasure or satisfaction – only willing surrender to the
Divine Will and recognition of the transformation this surrender
brings. I doubt that a psychological practice could have had the
same power to attract and sustain. I am also acutely aware that
the leadership team emerging in the Foundation is springing
mainly, though not exclusively, from these groups. I feel
blessed to be part of this process. |
