NEW TO CENTERING PRAYER?

We recommend you begin with our invitation to attend an Introductory Course offered at various locations throughout the St. Louis area. This program is normally offered on Saturday from 8:45 am - 2:00 pm and follow-up sessions of 90 minutes each. The Introductory Course is the core and beginning of all our spiritual journeys toward divine union. This Course includes a total of 13 1/2 hours of Centering Prayer and conceptual background about the prayer -- all experienced in a contemplative atmosphere with group support.

If you seek the small, still voice of God, this course will help you find the God within and to hear with the "ear of the heart.“

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. 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.

OPEN MIND/OPEN HEART
The book Open Mind/Open Heart is one of foundations for the Contemplative Outreach program.  This book is designed to initiate the reader into a deep, living relationship with God.  Written by the founder of Contemplative Outreach, Thomas Keating, the book moves beyond “discursive meditation and particular acts to the intuitive level of contemplation.”  Fr. Thomas gives an overview of the history of contemplative prayer in the Christian tradition and step-by-step guidance in the method of centering prayer.  Special attention is paid to the role of the Sacred Word, Christian growth and transformation, and active prayer. The book ends with an explicit treatment of the contemplative dimension of the gospel. Open Mind, Open Heart will take you into a world where God can do anything, into a realm of the greatest adventure – “Where one is open to Infinite and hence to infinite possibilities” 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.

All of our introductory programs are conducted by presenters commissioned by the National Office of Contemplative Outreach Ltd.