Centering Prayer

Centering Prayer
A Resource Page for Contemplative Practice

New to Centering Prayer? Click here for a beginner's guide

Take Two Minutes to Center.

Here’s a guided 2-minute practice of centering offered by the Center for Action and Contemplation.

Learn how to pray with your whole body.

Centering Prayer | "Teach Us To Pray" Episode 1

In this episode of "Teach Us to Pray", we focus on the receptive, listening aspect of prayer through the practice of Centering Prayer. Joslyn+ gives an inviting and simple tutorial on her approach to this wonderful ancient prayer practice.

Check out other videos in this series on the many forms of prayer by clicking the links below! A new episode airs every Tuesday on Youtube, Facebook, and Instagram.

More resources

Books
Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening by Cynthia Bourgeault
The Heart of Centering Prayer: Nondual Christianity in Theory and Practice by Cynthia Bourgeault
Intimacy with God: An Introduction to Centering Prayer by Thomas Keating
Open Mind, Open Heart by Thomas Keating
Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer by Richard Rohr

Videos
Thomas Keating: A Rising Tide of Silence (available on Amazon Prime) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2MrMDpwchA
What Is Contemplative Prayer? By Richard Rohr
https://youtu.be/b0o5J0-8OA0
Contemplation as Luminous Seeing by Cynthia Bourgeault
https://youtu.be/LaaA5hJAI0c

Practice of Lectio Divina by Abbot Austin Murphy, OSB
A brief overview of the ancient monastic practice of lectio divina by Abbot Austin Murphy, OSB, of St. Procopius Abbey
https://youtu.be/7d1BP-CeVoA

Music & Chants
Wellsprings of Life: Quaker Wisdom in Chant by Paulette Meier
“Concepts as subtle and challenging as inner stillness, non-attachment, and the indwelling Christ Spirit come powerfully alive through these mystical chants. One can drink these chants in, almost like an elixir of hope!"
https://www.paulettemeier.com/store/p79/Wellsprings_of_Life%3A_Quaker_Wisdom_in_Chant.html

Wisdom Chants by Darlene Franz
Darlene’s work… cultivates the expansion of attention and presence, deepening of embodied awareness, and freeing of personal and collective energies blocked by habit and conditioning. Carried into daily life, such chant practice can bring meaning to ordinary experience, enliven prayer and meditation practice, and enrich outward expressions of service.
https://wisdomchant.bandcamp.com/

“Psalm” by John Coltrane
Richard Rohr included a link to this jazz expression as a form of Lectio Divina, or sacred reading. He wrote: “We invite you to contemplate the soulful music of saxophonist John Coltrane’s composition “Psalm” from his album A Love Supreme. He put this handwritten poem/prayer on the music stand in front of him and played it as if it were music. Practicing Lectio Divina with this song may deepen your sense of prayer and add possible ways to pray. That is one of the beauties of Lectio Divina: it encourages us to “pray always.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmbWRZfOgwc

Additional Resources
“The Welcoming Prayer helps to dismantle acquired emotional programs and to heal the wounds of a lifetime by addressing them where they are stored — in the body. It contributes to the process of transformation in Christ initiated in Centering Prayer.” ---Contemplative Outreach
https://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/welcoming-prayer-method/

The Road to Emmaus #2 by Daniel Bonnell

Sit Like a Mountain