The practice of Centering Prayer

More than fifteen years ago, a good friend in seminary gave me a book, Finding Grace at the Center, that introduced me to the Christian practice of centering prayer.  This practice was different from anything I had ever done.  The styles of prayer to which I had thus far been exposed were very WORDY.  (Presbyterians are often inclined to rely heavily on our words, whether we're talking with other people or talking with God!)

Centering prayer, in contrast, was primarily about silence.  It is about developing our taste and our appetite for silence.

Initially, all of this silence was strange.  It was unnerving.  But I had to admit that it was also restful, in a very deep way.


The essence of the Centering Prayer practice is simply to sit with God for a period of time.  (20 minutes is ordinarily recommended as a good amount of time.)  That's all.  You're not saying anything to God, you're not asking God for anything, you're simply being with God, releasing your grip on life for this period of prayer.  If this seems simple, it is.  Thomas Merton said, “Contemplative prayer has to be always very simple, confined to the simplest of acts.”

As we begin to practice silence, what often happens, rather quickly, is that a whole variety of thoughts begin to crowd into your mind, while you're trying to simply be with God.  (It turns out that our minds don't want to let go of their grip so easily.)  These thoughts can range from the serious to the trivial.  "Why am I just sitting here?  This isn't getting anything done."  "I need to get some milk at the grocery store later today."  "I'm so worried about my family member."  "I'm really nailing this spiritual practice."  (Be particularly careful about this last one!) A whole variety of thoughts can crowd into your mind, to distract you from the simple presence of being with God.

Centering prayer encourages you, not to beat up on yourself for having these thoughts, but simply to let those thoughts go.  Let them go, as if you are sitting in a stream, and your thoughts float up to you in the water.  You just let them go so that they float on away, down the stream.  You don't beat yourself up for getting distracted so easily.  You just keep returning to being with God.  Return and return and return.  What we are doing in this practice is training ourselves to simply be with God.

Centering prayer encourages the use of a "sacred word," which you can use when you realize that your attention is being drawn away.  Some examples of "sacred words" are: love, Jesus, God, now, peace, yes, grace, or others.  Choose a word that speaks to you of God's mercy and God's presence and God's love for you.  Let that word be your sacred word.  When you find your mind wandering, say your sacred word to yourself, and allow the word to bring you back to being with God.  There's nothing magic about the word; the word is just a vehicle to bring you back to God.  Being with God is the main thing, not the word.

When we spend this kind of time with God in silence, what we begin to find is a deep and precious intimacy with God.  This becomes not just an intimacy that we have heard about from others, but one that we have experienced for ourselves. As we cultivate our capacity to simply be with God - without needing an agenda, without needing words, without needing to prove anything to God - we will move beyond knowing things about God, to actually knowing God.

If you want to read more about Centering Prayer, you may want to check out writings by Thomas Keating, Cynthia Bourgeault, and Richard Rohr; these three writers have helped me the most.  St. Ignatius Loyola Parish in NYC also offers this succinct summary of the practice.