Centering Prayer

A centering prayer meditation is held at St. Matthew's each Saturday at 8:30 a.m. in the Parish Chapel. Beginners are welcomed and encouraged. For more information, contact Bea Melby or Marilyn Grantham grant005@umn.edu.

About Centering Prayer (from www.centeringprayer.com)

Centering Prayer, traditionally called contemplative prayer, is a method of prayer that prepares us to receive the gift of God's presence, . It consists of responding to the Spirit of Christ by consenting to God’s presence and action within. It furthers the development of 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. It emphasizes prayer as a personal relationship with God. At the same time, it is a discipline to foster and serve this relationship by a regular, daily practice of prayer. 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 Abbey, St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts.

The Practice of Centering Prayer (from Thomas Keating at www.thecentering.org):

Choose a sacred word as the symbol of your intention to consent to God's presence and action within.

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.

When you become aware of thoughts, return ever-so-gently to the sacred word.

At the end of the prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed for a couple of minutes.

The Order of St. Matthew's Centering Prayer

Please try to arrive a little early. The chapel doors will be closed at exactly 8:30 a.m. so as not to disturb the participants.   If you arrive after the Chapel door has closed, please feel free to stay and pray with us in a pew by the door.  Please arrive and depart from the upstairs in silence.

The prayer session will proceed as follows:

• Bell ring
• Psalm
• 30 minutes of silent prayer
• Bell ring
• 1 minute of silence
• Spoken prayer
• Bell ring
• Silence--depart as ready

Lent is a wonderful season in which to begin Centering Prayer.  During Lent, immediately following Centering Prayer, you may also choose to listen to a 10 minute reading of devotions from Father Keating's book, Journey To The Center: A Lenten Passage.