The Practice of Centering Prayer

The Guidelines for Centering Prayer:

1. Choose a sacred word as the symbol of your intention to consent to God's presence and action within.

2. Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed, settle briefly, and silently introduce the sacred word as the symbol of your consent to God's presence and action within.

3. When you become aware of thoughts, return ever-so-gently to the sacred word.

4. At the end of the prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed for a couple of minutes.

For me, beginning Centering Prayer was a “coming home" experience "to a place I should never have left" (see Thomas Keating's Meditation below). I only wish someone had told me 15 years ago contemplative prayer was for everyone and introduced me then to Centering Prayer.

Centering Prayer is normally practiced for 20 minutes twice a day, usually after rising in the morning and again before the evening meal at the end of the day.

"Centering prayer is a method designed to deepen the relationship with Christ begun, for example, in lectio divina and to facilitate the development of contemplative prayer by preparing our faculties to cooperate with this gift. It is an attempt to present the teaching of earlier times (e.g. the Cloud of Unknowing) in an updated form and to put a certain order and regularity into it. It is not meant to replace other kinds of prayer; it simply puts other kinds of prayer into a new and fuller perspective. During the time of prayer, we consent to Cod's presence and action within. At other times our attention moves outward to discover God's presence everywhere else." (Thomas Keating, Open Mind, Open Heart, p.139)

-http://www.kyrie.com/cp/guidelines_for_centering_prayer.htm