Contemplative Outreach

News

EMAIL ADDRESSES

Could everyone who receives our newsletter by post please provide us with your email address if you have one. This will significantly reduce our costs for distributing the newsletter. You can ring our office 01772 620746 or email infocouk@btinternet.com with your email details. Thank you.

MAY 21ST 2012 - FIVE DAY RETREAT - Why Centering Prayer? An in depth introduction to Centering Prayer and its process (Aylesford, Kent)

Please see our diary page for more details.

SEPTEMBER 7TH 2012 - WEEKEND RETREAT, Centering Prayer and Lectio Divina (Liverpool)

Please look at our diary page for more details.

OCTOBER 8TH/12TH 2012. Heartfulness: Transformation in Christ. Sandymount, Crosby, Liverpool.

Please look at diary page for details.

NOVEMBER 16TH/18TH 2012. SILENT MUSIC. A look at the spiritual journey and Centering Prayer with St. John of the Cross. Sandymount, Crosby, Liverpool.

Please look at diary page for details.

DECEMBER 3RD/9TH 2012. POST INTENSIVE RETREAT. Sandymount, Crosby, Liverpool.

Please look at diary page for details.

JANUARY 7TH/13TH 2013. FORMATION FOR CONTEMPLATIVE OUTREACH UK SERVICE. Sandymount, Crosby, Liverpool.

Please look at diary page for details.

INTRODUCTORY DAYS

If you would like to have an Introductory Day for Centering Prayer in your town/area, please call the office to discuss this further. Telephone 01772 620746

Centering Prayer

is a method of prayer of silent prayer which prepares our faculties to receive the gift of contemplative prayer. It is a unique multi-format programme that provides direct training in contemplative practice – as well as a treasury of wisdom from the teachings of Thomas Keating.

Throughout the centuries, contemplative prayer has been cultivated by the Desert Fathers, John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Meister Eckhart and Thomas Merton – to name but a few.

It has had many names over the centuries such as Prayer of

Faith, Prayer of the Heart, Prayer of Simple Regard and Prayer of Simplicity.

Centering Prayer, like the above, seeks to renew the contemplative dimension of Christianity. Centering Prayer furthers the development of contemplative prayer by preparing our faculties to co-operate with the gift of contemplative prayer.

Centering Prayer facilitates a movement from more active modes of prayer: verbal, discursive or affective prayer into a receptive form of prayer sometime called “resting in God”.

It can allow us to become sensitive to the very subtle inspirations of the Holy Spirit. Centering Prayer is meant to enrich and complement other forms of prayer, not to exclude or replace them. Centering Prayer is at the same time a relationship with God and a discipline to foster that relationship.

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 St. Joseph 's Abbey in Spencer , Massachusetts.