Centering Prayer is a receptive method of Christian silent prayer which deepens our relationship with God, the Indwelling Presence … a prayer in which we can experience God’s presence within us, closer than breathing, closer than thinking, closer than consciousness itself.
The Four Guidelines for Practicing Centering Prayer
- 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 engaged with your 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.
We practice centering prayer for 20 minutes twice daily.
For more information, you may download a brochure summarizing the Method of Centering Prayer.
Learning Centering Prayer
The Introduction to Centering Prayer workshop typically includes a half-day of prayer and presentations followed by four continuing sessions. Please contact us ((Link to Contact us page)) if you are interested in a Zoom or in-person presentation of this program.
A recorded version of this five-part program is available on YouTube. It was presented last year by the Contemplative Outreach Introduction to Centering Prayer Introductory Program Service Team
A two-part version of this program was recorded last year by Fr. Carl Arico and LJ Milone for Contemplative Outreach of Maryland and Washington, and is available here.
12-Step Outreach: Information about centering prayer as the 11th step and links to resources and groups is found here.