Centering Prayer

This morning, on 1260 AM Immaculate Heart Radio there was a show--I think it was hosted by the director of vocations for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, but I cuold not confirm this with the station's schedule. Any way, the guests were defending centering prayer as being traditional, being a part of the Catholic contemplative tradition, and citing the Trappists. (Were they thinking of Thomas Merton?) I didn't listen to the show since I had to get ready for Mass, but I asked my mother to jot some notes. The guests, Mery English and George Beaning, are associated with Contemplative Outreach Northern California. The acknowledged Fr. Thomas Keating as the founder of the movement and teacher. Unfortunately the show is not archived, and I have to rely on the notes my mother wrote. Unlike the prayers of other religions, Catholic centering prayer focuses on Christ or God. "Abba" is a sacred word. (I don't know if it is actually used in prayer.) My mother writes that one can be sitting in one's chair or lie in bed, and closing one's eyes or staring at the wall, one choses a sacred word, which is a symbol to draw  God's presence into you - Jesus, Lord, Christe, Kyrie. One clears one's mind, focuses on the mind and the presence of God and gently says the sacred word to himself, remaining calm and detached, for 20 minutes, twice a day. Sounds a bit similar to Eastern Christian hesychasm, and I believe Catholics promoting centering prayer have made this connection before.

Apparently Mary English meditates/does Centering Prayer for 3 to 4 hours a day, 1 hour at a time. Workshops are offered at St. Benedict's Monastery (where Fr. Keating is a monk).

Once again, the bad historical claim was made that before, God was understood as Creator and was distant, but now, Centering prayer enables us to change our relationship with Him so that he is our Father, Abba.

What does it have in common Eastern prayer traditions, like Buddhist or Hindu meditation, or the sitting prayer of the Confucians, and so on? It would be one thing to use the name "centering prayer" as a means of evangelizing Asians. But to help Catholics with their prayer life? The big question is how is God present to us in our minds? Is He present through Faith and grace? Or are we in some way a representation of God? And is Centering Prayer the be-all and end-all of Christian spirituality? Or is meditation just the beginning?

Catholics need to make time for prayer, and becoming recollected may require that they first calm themselves down, physically and mentally. But this is just a preparation for prayer. (See this earlier post.) Fr. Jordan Aumann, O.P. talks about the grades of prayer. (Compare with Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange.) For beginners, the Jesus Prayer and Centering Prayer, rightly purified, are more like affective prayer grounded upon simple meditation, rather than being a form of discursive meditation, but they can lead to the prayer of simplicity. But the prayer of simplicity itself is not immediately attained by beginners?

Here's one critique, and another. This Rock article.From the CDF: LETTER TO THE BISHOPS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ON SOME ASPECTS OF CHRISTIAN MEDITATION (OLW, German)

Catholic Encyclopedia: Contemplation and Prayer





Fr. James Martin, S.J. has a video on centering prayer as well. Hmm.



Father Thomas Keating - Centering Prayer: Its History and Importance
FB Group
Contemplative Outreach
Kyrie Centering Prayer Index
M. Basil Pennington, A Christian Way to Transformation
Basil Pennington
Monastic Interreligious Dialogue