Keating: Centering Prayer 2

“Silence is God’s first language; everything else is a poor translation.” Thomas Keating, Invitation to Love: The Way of Christian Contemplation

I daily talk with spiritual friends who are prisoners to the business of their minds trying to keep pace with the business of the world. It is natural to see Centering Prayer as an escape from the world, but Keating and Cynthia Bourgeault remind us that this spiritual practice is instead a reconnecting to God. This is not a one-time practice like a shot of penicillin for an infection of pneumonia. It is more like a daily heart medication which can strengthen a muscle that perhaps has not been cared for in the past.

Another difficult concept is that the change that takes place in a person’s live is usually most felt some time later than when he or she sits and practice the exercise. The change also may be more prominent in others than in the one practicing centering prayer. God is the healer.

We put ourselves in position to be healed in centering prayer.

I also have friends who as with most other exercises find this one easier to stay with it when they meet on a regular basis with others doing Centering Prayer.

Thomas Keating, “The Method of Centering Prayer: The Prayer of Consent,” Contemplative Outreach, http://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/category/category/centering-prayer

Joanna joannaseibert.com