Centering Prayer
27 01 2004
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Lots of resources on this area from Father Thomas Keating in Contemplative Outreach Website (yes … it’s ok to learn from a Roman Catholic Cistercian “Trappist” priest)
My first introduction to contemplative prayer/centering prayer and Lectio Divina was during the Introduction to Christian Spirituality Course in Seminary by then Ms. Voon Choon Khing (now Dr. Voon and soon getting married I heard! Congrats …) I know some of my fellow future pastors was uncomfortable with it - some felt it was too Roman Catholic, others felt it’s too Zen-like. But, I found this way of prayer extremely helpful for a person like me who has difficulty “focusing” or “settling down” to pray. It helped me not only to “slow down” my breathing, and “center” my scattered throughts, i found I could “calm down” my often quick drumming heart beat and appreciate the silence where GOD can truly speak to me in a “still small voice”.
Thanks for the post, Sivin. Will go and start practicing some silence now… I think some Christians overreact to things like this sometimes because it shares some common language with the new agers - but it’s the content that counts. On the same sort of logic, we should be cautious about large meetings with mood/emotion - “inducing” music and rousing speeches, no? (think Tony Robbins and that ilk)