What it is. Centering Prayer is silent prayer that moves beyond words, thoughts and images. We sit in silence and use a sacred word as a symbol of our consent to God’s presence and action within. It is not an emptying of the mind but a resting in God. It trains interior receptivity: letting go of our own agendas to receive what God is already doing. It is the deepest form of the Pause.

Where it comes from. Trappist monks Thomas Keating, Basil Pennington and William Meninger developed the method in the 1970s at St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts. It draws on the fourteenth-century classic The Cloud of Unknowing and the teaching of John Cassian and the Desert Fathers.

Before you begin

  • Choose a sacred word of one or two syllables, such as God, Jesus, Abba, Peace or Love. Keep the same word for the whole prayer.
  • Set a gentle timer for 20 minutes. The practice is usually twice a day.
  • Some like to begin with a short reading, image or poem, then let it go.

The movements

The four guidelines of Centering Prayer, as taught by Contemplative Outreach (read the full method, PDF):

  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 engaged with 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.

Gentle reminders

  • “Thoughts” means anything: plans, memories, feelings, sounds, even holy insights.
  • You will drift. Everyone does. The return is the prayer, not a failure.
  • The sacred word is not a mantra to repeat. Use it only when you notice you have been carried off.
  • Judge the practice by your daily life, not by how the twenty minutes felt.
  • As St. Ignatius put it: act as if everything depended on you, and pray as if everything depended on God.

Try it: an example

Begin with a short reflection to settle, then set it aside.

Sitting, hidden here in the gardens,
I remain immersed in the novel’s dialog,
Soaking up the rain in 17th-century Scottish highlands,
On a summer day.
Meanwhile, my body relaxes in the mid-afternoon, SOCAL shade.
Proving once again, the deliciousness of time travel.

Delicious, Michael J. Cunningham

Here is how the twenty minutes might go.

  1. Choose. The sacred word for today: Peace.
  2. Settle. Sit comfortably, close your eyes, take a few breaths. Silently introduce Peace, once.
  3. Return. A few minutes in, you are no longer in the room. You are rehearsing tomorrow’s meeting, or wandering a Scottish highland like the reader in the poem. The mind is a gifted time traveler. When you notice, don’t scold. Gently introduce Peace again. This may happen dozens of times.
  4. Close. When the timer sounds, stay in silence with eyes closed for two minutes. Some end by slowly praying the Our Father.

Going deeper

Keep going

Michael J. Cunningham OFS