Centering Prayer consists essentially of:
Sitting still, sitting upright, eyes closed, You then settle your attention on a ‘sacred word’  - a short phrase or single word you use as a sign of your openness to God. Each time your thoughts wander off, you gently bring your attention back to your word in consent to God’s action within your life.

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week one

Choose a brief time-slot of 5, 10, 15 or 20 minutes where you know that you will not be interrupted, or when will be able to ignore interruptions. Put the phone off the hook, turn off the TV/radio/CD-player/family member(s).

Choose a time you can be reasonably sure of being able to protect – a regular slot each day is helpful.

Centering Prayer is very simple. Close your eyes and choose a word that means something to you. The shorter the better, the simpler the better. A word, say, like ‘God,’ or ‘love.’

The aim is to stay open in the silence to God and whatever God might want to do in you.

Each time a thought or a feeling, a sensation, memory, emotion or whatever comes up, just say your word inside yourself, let go of the thought and come back to the openness. You m ay find that there are so many thoughts and feelings that you end up saying your word all the time. Or you may settle straight into emptiness and a sense of peace. Most people find that they experience some busyness of thoughts interspersed with small pockets of silence.

Any of these experiences is fine.

Whatever happens, your job is simply to notice each thought or feeling as it happens, letting go of each one in turn, using your word to come back to the silence and openness to God.

 

Note 1: It may be useful to get a timer e.g. on your watch, alarm clock or cell-phone, to let you know when your session is finished. You don’t want to have to keep opening your eyes to check out the time.

Note 2: Make sure as far as possible that you are sitting up when you do Centering Prayer. Lying down, for most people, turns very quickly and easily into sleep. The two activities are entirely different and need to be kept that way!

Note 3: You can keep the same word for successive sessions. Once you find a word, you’re comfortable with, it’s a good idea to stick with it. You don’t want to waste time in each session trying to decide on the best word for that day. The one you’ve got already will be fine. The point is not so much the content of the word, as what you’re trying to do with it, which is simply to help you to let go of whatever thoughts and feelings come up. Using the same word each day will mean using the same word whatever your mood or situation. Like learning to sail in all weathers.

 

So: Settle back, close your eyes, say your word and sink your attention into God.

 

week two

If you’ve been trying out Centering Prayer over the last week, it’s likely you’ll have noticed just how many ‘thoughts’ (and feelings, sensations, emotions, memories etc) there are to ‘let go’ of. For many people this can be a little overwhelming. Especially for people of a more extroverted disposition, or people who are very busy. Often beginners with Centering Prayer discover that they’ve been using their busy minds and busy lives to evade thinking about – or feeling! – certain things. Suddenly during Centering Prayer, there’s no barrier any more. There’s just you and – all your stuff!

If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed – don’t worry. Being able to notice the contents of your thoughts is a first step to clearing space from them. It’s a bit like turning on an old garden hose – you get a few minutes of muddy/rusty water first before the clearer water starts to emerge.

Just keep noticing each thought in turn and, using your word, letting each of them go.

The main thing is to do this gently! It’s not a workout at the gym! And it’s not a case of doing mental ‘kung fu’ on your own thoughts. There is no hurry to ‘empty’ your mind. And emptying your mind is not the goal. You are simply practising letting go of your thoughts. Each time you do this, you are also letting God act as God wishes in the depths of your being.

 

If all you find yourself doing is constantly saying your word in order to let go of the ongoing succession of thoughts, then that is fine. As Centering Prayer founder Thomas Keating said, Ten thousand thoughts is ten thousand opportunities to return to God!

 

But go gently. It’s important not to strain anything!

 

If the thoughts are all coming so thick and fast that you are feeling a bit harried, you may want to try anchoring your word into the rhythm of your breath – a syllable per breath, i.e. one on the in-breath, one on the out. Or, if it’s only one syllable to start with, on both in and out-breath. Work out what’s most comfortable for you.

It’s a good idea to get the breathing happening from your stomach, too, rather than your lungs. This will slow your breathing down and help to relax you.

After a few minutes of working the word in with your breath you might find things mentally clear enough to let go of that approach and just return to using the word only when you need it.

 

Again: Go Gently. A key reason for this is that if you ‘go hard’ you’re less likely to be letting go of the thoughts than you are to be pushing them away. And the problem with pushing thoughts away is that they tend to push back! So: going gently releases the thoughts and they tend to evaporate at their own pace.

Go gently on the thoughts. Go gently on yourself!

 

 

week three

Centering Prayer is one of the most minimal and minimalist forms of meditation there is. In one sense, this makes it super-easy. In another sense this makes it easy in the wrong ways – easy to confuse with other things. So, some fine-tuning. A little bit about what Centering Prayer is not:

 

1. Introspection. A trap especially for introverts. Introverts tend to spend time in their heads chewing stuff over, processing their perceptions and reactions to things. It’s easy for an introvert to think that just spending time alone by oneself is prayer. It’s not. It’s (often) just brooding. Every thought that comes up is a thought to let go of. No matter what it’s about. Memories, dreams, reflections. All interesting in themselves – there’s no law against them! They just don’t fit into Centering Prayer. Here extroverts, as Centering Prayer founder Thomas Keating points out, tend to have an advantage. Stereotypically, extroverts don’t much like time alone or time in silence. Which makes them fairly focused on doing the job when they do get around to Centering Prayer.

 

2. Intercession: Often people find that when finally they get some space for silence, they feel obligated at some level of their being, to turn this into prayer, usually on behalf of others. Praying for other people is a great idea. Again, just for another time. Centering Prayer is a specific form of prayer in itself. Usually we think of prayer as speaking to God. A contemplative practice like Centering Prayer is listening to God. And listening involves winding down the chatter from our end.

 

3. Information: And ‘listening’ is also very specific. It’s a paradoxical listening. Listening to God in this context does not mean listening for a particular ‘statement’ or ‘voice’ from God (what the great contemplatives called ‘locutions’). We’re not hoping to get information from God here. Partly because to do so is to only listen with one’s mind. Centering Prayer is listening with your ‘being.’

 

4. Insights: You may find, even if you’ve relaxed a bit about trying to ‘get anything’ from God during your silence, that you appear to be getting something anyway. Insights into your life, or other people’s lives, how to solve problems, what the ‘real’ issue is in some situation or other – these things can spontaneously pop up and you find that you’ve ‘got the gold’ on something. You may have. You may not. Either way, what you’ve got is another ‘thought.’ Let go of it. Don’t get distracted. If the idea you had was valid, it’ll still be around to pick up later. When you’ve finished your Centering Prayer. In the meantime: let it go. Note: It may be tempting to keep a notebook or a journal next to you while you’re doing Centering Prayer to write down the ideas ‘for later.’ Don’t. Don’t even pick one up. Once you start notating things, you’re chasing your thoughts. Let them go.

 

5. Imagery: This is for many people the toughest challenge. Our brains are spontaneously producing imagery all the time. Not much we can do about that. Except keep noticing, and keep letting go. There are two problems within this though. One is the experience of the imagery being even more interesting during Centering Prayer than it might otherwise be. In fact, especially because we’re doing Centering Prayer. That is partly because the ‘grass is always greener’ i.e. whatever we’re not doing at a particular time starts to look better than what we are doing. And partly because in contemplation we’re sinking into slightly deeper parts of the brain where imagery is produced with fewer filters. And this can be pretty entertaining. It’s tempting to use Centering Prayer as a time to ‘enjoy the movies’ in your head. Better to find a separate time for this. Let go of the images as patiently as you let go of any other kind of thought.

The second problem is supernatural experiences. Visions, lights, smells,

sounds. Many people experience and many more hope for the ‘freaky’ stuff in contemplation. And it may be real, it may genuine, it may even be really helpful. It’s also – the wrong context. If the sky rolls up like a scroll, if an angel appears to take you home, if a demon waves a lottery ticket, or Jesus turns up on the white horse of the Apocalypse, it’s generally best just to say “Hi” followed quickly by “I’m busy right now. But if you’d like to take a number, and join the queue …” All of these phenomena are, in the context of Centering Prayer, just more ‘thoughts.’ Let go of these ones too. No matter how compelling, exalted or story-worthy they appear. In fact the last is a key reason to let them go. They make good stories. And the good stories feed directly into our egos. The very thing we’re trying to loosen our grip on in Centering Prayer.

 

Essentially though, each of these items may be good in itself. And fine in any other context. Just not in Centering Prayer. And one key reason seems to be that, simply – they’re evasions. Ways of escaping the direct experience of silence, more acutely, of emptiness, and in the end, of God.

 

Don’t be daunted. It’s amazing how things feel/look/are when you can get some freedom any of them or the need for any of them. Keep turning up to your time of Centering Prayer. Keep letting go the thoughts and images, whatever they’re about. Keep risking the trust that God is present in some way beyond all the comfortable options we resort to in our pursuit of ease.

 

 

week four

Last week we looked in some depth at what Centering Prayer is ‘not.’ You may be wondering then what positively Centering Prayer is, and whether you’re ‘doing it right.’

Funnily enough, you’re only really sure you’re getting it right as you gradually become aware of what not to be doing.

Centering Prayer is a plunge into the dark. The risk is that when we let go and leave the safety of our own agendas – as subtle and as multiple as they turn out to be – we begin to find we are supported in the arms of God.

 

Each of the ‘temptations’ we listed last week is a different way of seeking ‘results.’

One of the major things about Centering Prayer is the process of letting go of looking for results. When we look for results, we are in effect entering God into a trade arrangement: ‘Here – I did some Centering Prayer, how ‘bout some kind of bonus?’ The 'bonus', the result you're after, could be an image, an insight, a powerfully worded prayer of intercession, the scent of roses etc etc.

Letting go of each of these goals is a way of letting go of the part of ourselves that grasps after gain – of something … anything. And it could all feel rather unrewarding. In fact, completely unrewarding. And unrewarding is exactly the point. Somewhere in the midst of persisting in what feels like a completely ‘point-less’ exercise in prayer (no ‘benefits’ for you) the center of gravity begins to shift. You are no longer doing your Centering Prayer as a ‘favour’ to God, for what you can get out of it, you’re doing it for God for what God can get out of you.

 

And God may well be getting stuff ‘out.’ Memories, emotions of all varieties, feelings you’d forgotten, feelings you cannot make any sense of … All these things may start to surface in your mind. Like opening a Pandora’s box of surprise items, not all of them pleasant. This can be disconcerting.

 

Don’t worry. It’s par for the course. Psychologically, you’re relaxing your ordinary mind and so all the stuff you’ve put out of your conscious mind now has the time and room to come back up. Spiritually, however, it’s God doing some vacuum-cleaning. Stuff surfaces only to disappear. As you continue to notice each thought, image, feeling as it comes up, and let go of it, you’re handing it over to God. And you don’t have to think about it again. Old emotions may make some noise on the way out, but the noise they’re making is largely ‘Goodbye.’ So, stay the course. Notice the new contents, let go the new contents. What you’ll be developing is a new freedom from the impact that old material may have had.

 

While you’re not looking for results, you may be experiencing some effects (like the surfacing emotions). You may also experience some benefits – but these are usually surprises and unlooked for. Like, you may become more relaxed, your relationships start to flow a little easier. Ironically, these benefits are not usually ones you notice about yourself. Other people notice them about you. You might be becoming a little easier to live with, for example. But those around you may not actually say anything. So you’re still continuing on into the dark.

 

In short:

• You’re easing up on looking for results

• You may find yourself experiencing some ‘effects;’

• and other people may notice some benefits

   

 

Your job, is still to keep turning up. Set aside a steady, maintainable time for doing some Centering Prayer each day. 20 minutes is a good workable stretch, but shorter is fine. Keep it regular. Keep noticing your thoughts, keep letting go of your thoughts. Use your sacred word as a sign of consent to God to do – or not do! – whatever God wants.

 

The tension between prayer as a waiting and yet not expecting, or hoping and yet not grasping is nicely caught in the lines of T. S. Eliot in 'East Coker,' from Four Quartets:

 

"I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope

For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love

For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith

But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.

Wait without thought, for you are not yet ready for thought:

So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing."

 

 

week five

Now that you’re in the swing of things with Centering Prayer, we can add a nuance: Naming the thoughts as they occur. You’re already using your sacred word to kick off from a thought and settle back into the silence. You can also get a little extra ‘oomph’ in your letting go, by giving the thoughts a phrase as they turn up. For example: ‘thought about anger’; ‘thought about grief’; thought about envy’; ‘thought about money’ and so on. You could even abbreviate the phrase down to just the key noun: ‘anger’; ‘grief’; ‘envy’; ‘money’; etc.

Naming the thoughts is a very old Christian practice. There is a form of it in the famous Cloud of Unknowing, the 14^th Century English manual of prayer, on which Centering Prayer is based. But the practice goes even further back - almost a thousand years - to the Christian Desert Fathers and Mothers of the 4^th and 5^th Centuries (see John Cassian).

Both the Cloud author and John Cassian before him noticed that thoughts tend to cluster around certain magnetic centers - variations on the same basic themes. For the Desert Fathers and Mothers, these themes were the ‘Eight Thoughts’: food; sex; acquisition; anger; melancholy; boredom; narcissism and pride. These are more familiar to us now (and the Cloud author) as the 'Seven Deadly Sins' (Pride; Anger; Envy; Sloth; Avarice; Greed; Lust). The ‘Eight Thoughts’ schema has perhaps a little more subtlety as a map than the Seven Deadly Sins – a little more nuance, and maybe a little more interior in orientation. But whichever version we work with, it is astonishing in practice to learn how much of what goes on in our brains boils down to one or other of these basic preoccupations. Obviously not all our thoughts are these only, but it is a rapid education finding out just how many are.

To these seven or eight preoccupations, we could also add, via St. Augustine, thoughts about the 'future' and the 'past.' Thoughts about the past could involve say, guilt, or nostalgia/idealisation,or bitterness/ nurturing a hurt. Thoughts about the future could involve forms of anxiety, tension, or escapist hopes. Obviously there are plenty other colourings and flavours.

Whether the thought is about the past or the future, we are mentally, somewhere other than the right here and now. Centering Prayer - despite the fact that your eyes are closed, and we feel like we're 'away' from everything - actually returns us, repeatedly, to the present moment.

As you continue turning up to your Centering Prayer, keep a mental eye open for the kinds of thoughts you are letting go, and see if there are general patterns. There may be different tendencies depending on your time of life, calendar, week or day. Don’t beat yourself up about them. Simply notice the fact of your major patterns, taking care to let go of each thought, or impulse in turn.

Continuing to do this - naming the thoughts as they happen, and letting each of them go - you are participating in the real ‘desert’ experience of the ‘Desert Files’, like Jesus confronting the temptations in the wilderness. You are also part of a continuous stream of practice in Christian prayer that stretches back almost 18 centuries. You are joining the Desert Fathers and Mothers in the desert of the spirit. The 'cloud of thoughts', gives way to the 'cloud of witnesses' and the presence of God, and you are not alone.

 

 

week six

 

Many people find that with Centering Prayer they are becoming aware of their thoughts, and aware of their thoughts earlier. We often experience a quite rapid sequence between an initial impulse and that impulse turning into an action. Along that sequence between impulse and action (or ‘stimulus and response’) there is a continuum. The sequence tends to get stronger and faster as it goes along. And if the thought is part of a pattern that is long conditioned into us, such as a tendency to rage, say, then it can be enough just to notice that the anger is happening as it is happening, rather than being surprised by it and saying “I have no idea where that came from.” Over time with Centering Prayer, you do begin, by degrees, to become aware of ‘where that came from.’ You begin to see the sequence. Practising Centering Prayer becomes a way of unhooking from that sequence earlier and earlier. And this ability you develop during Centering Prayer becomes something you can use in the midst of ordinary life as well. That same spiritual and psychological muscle turns out to be useful when, say; you’re stuck in traffic, having a family showdown, multi-tasking at work or at home or just going for a walk.

You begin to ‘catch yourself’ in the moment, and hopefully before the ‘act’ of whatever is so habituated. Your stock response to things becomes a little less ‘stock’ and a little more ‘response.’ You get just a shade more time to consider how you’re going to react instead of being hijacked by your impulses.

And sometimes that sliver of time is enough for a new impulse, one you ordinarily might not have considered, to present itself. An impulse from within a space cleared, however briefly, from habit. An impulse that could even be coming from God.

Doing Centering Prayer does not just begin the lifelong process of clearing your mind or being from your ordinary thoughts and actions. Centering Prayer begins creating space for the spontaneous action of God. There may be surprises. The tiny and not so tiny crucifixions of ‘thought’ that happen in contemplation become spaces for resurrection in the rest of your life.

 

“What we plant in the soil of contemplation we shall reap in the harvest of action.” – Meister Eckhart.

 

week seven

 

We hope that you have found value in engaging with a prayer path through this Lenten season. As Lent draws to a close, you might like to reflect on the following questions:

- How easy/hard was it to maintain a regular meditation practice?

- What did you gain from the experience?

- What did you struggle with?

- How might you develop this practice in an ongoing way?

 

If you would like to read more and go further into Centering Prayer as a lived practice beyond Lent, we recommend you get hold of:

1. Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, by Cynthia Bourgeault (Cowley: Cambridge: Mass. 2004) An exceptional book.

2. The Cloud of Unknowing. There are many translations widely available. We can especially recommend the translations by Clifton Wolters (Penguin: 1978); and William Johnston (Image: Reissue, 1996)

 

And for an exploration of the ‘Eight Thoughts’ aspect of the meditation read:

Thoughts Matter: The Practice of the Spiritual Life (Continuum, 1999), also published as A Mind at Peace (Lion, 1999), by Sister Mary Margaret Funk. A very easy introduction to the work of John Cassian.

 

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