Centering Prayer is a method of prayer, which prepares us to receive the gift of God's presence, traditionally called contemplative prayer. It consists of responding to the Spirit of Christ by consenting to God’s presence and action within us. It encourages us toward contemplative prayer by quieting our faculties to cooperate with the gift of God’s presence.

Centering Prayer facilitates the movement from more active modes of prayer — verbal, mental or affective prayer — into a receptive prayer of resting in God. The prayer emphasizes a personal relationship with God. At the same time, it is a discipline to foster and serve this relationship by a regular, daily practice. It is Trinitarian in its source, Christ-centered in its focus, and ecclesial in its effects; that is, it builds communities of faith.

Centering Prayer is drawn from ancient prayer practices of the Christian contemplative heritage, notably the Fathers and Mothers of the Desert, Lectio Divina, (praying the scriptures), The Cloud of Unknowing, St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila. It was distilled into a simple method of prayer in the 1970’s by three Trappist monks - Fr. William Meninger, Fr. Basil Pennington and Abbot Thomas Keating at the Trappist St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts.

What is Christian Contemplative Prayer?
Christian Contemplative Prayer is the opening of mind and heart - our whole being - to God, the Ultimate Mystery, beyond thoughts, words and emotions, whom we know by faith is within us, closer than breathing, thinking, feeling and choosing; even closer than consciousness itself.

The root of all prayer is interior silence. Though we think of prayer as thoughts or feelings expressed in words, this is only one expression. Contemplative Prayer is a prayer of silence, an experience of God’s presence as the ground in which our being is rooted, the Source from whom our life emerges at every moment.

For the Church's first sixteen centuries Contemplative Prayer was the goal of Christian spirituality. After the Reformation, this living tradition was virtually lost. Today, with cross-cultural dialogue and historical research, the recovery of the Christian contemplative heritage has begun.

The Method of Contemplative Prayer
A talk by Fr. Thomas Keating about how to begin a practice of centering prayer.

Useful Links
Two generous Western Pennsylvania hosts of retreats, special weekends, and more:

Tabor House of Prayer (Millvale Fransiscans)

Bethany Retreat Center, Frenchville, PA

Contemplative Outreach National Site
The national organization's wonderful website, with much useful and inspiring information, including regular writings of Fr. Thomas Keating, links to other state and city centering prayer groups, national events, many links, and a multitude of other materials.

Northern California Contemplative Outreach Readings Page
A rich set of readings assembled by Contemplative Outreach of Northern California. They also list some helpful and wide-ranging links to other sites on their links page.

The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society
Instructions on various types of meditation, including centering prayer, lists of retreat centers, and other useful links. Not an exclusively Christian page, with lots of diverse content.