Centering Prayer as a Method and Practice

What is Centering Prayer, anyway?

Centering Prayer is an opening of ourselves to God's action within the whole of ourselves. Practically speaking, most of us identify ourselves with our conscious awarenesses of sensations, feelings and thoughts. We seldom hold in awareness that we also have unconscious sensations, feelings and beliefs. Further, we are far more permeable to other people and environments than we usually even imagine.  Many, if not most of us, also like to believe that we control our lives and what we do. When faced with a problem or situation one of our responses is often, "What should I do about this?" We are not usually thinking, "What does God want for me in this situation?" Or even, "What else might I need to pay attention to here?" We often just take for granted that we know enough about what we are thinking and feeling, that we are whatever we perceive ourself to be in the moment, and that we should be able to figure out what to do. We do not take for our motto, "don't do something, just sit there."

In Centering Prayer we do not hold on to what we perceive, feel or think. We do not need to figure out what to do. We do not identify with our experience, we simply let go of any sensations, feelings, or thoughts that come to us. We do this because our purpose is to allow God to do within us what God knows needs to happen. Our purpose is to allow God to transform us, to unite us with Christ in a way that goes well beyond the usual cognitive acknowledgments that our soul exists in God.  We are, at the very base of our being, as our being, united with God, because were it otherwise, we would not exist. But, there is knowing and knowing. Keating says, in this life, we are united with God, and know this, by "pure faith."

How do we practice Centering Prayer?

The practice of Centering Prayer is simple, but it is not easy. We begin by sitting in a comfortable position that keeps the spine straight. We choose or think of a sacred word of one or two syllables. The sacred word symbolizes our intention and desire to open to God, to allow God to work within us at a very deep level. We pay no attention to the sensations, feelings and thoughts that come and go as we sit with this openness. We simply let them go. They are there, but we are not paying attention. If/when we find we've been following down a thought trail, we mentally say the sacred word, being aware of our intention to be open to God. We do this for 20-30 minutes at a time, two times a day at the beginning - or whatever we can manage. At first  most of us are just getting into a bit of mental silence after 15 or 20 minutes - or longer. At the end of the time period we have decided upon, we give ourself a couple of minutes to come back into ordinary awareness, and thank God for God's presence with and within us.