Focus on your breath.
Focus on your body sensations.
Repeat a word or a phrase, (use a mantra)
All of these are examples of ways people meditate. One thing they have in common is they focus our mind on something which helps to stay in the present moment. These are all powerful ways of meditation.
Centering prayer is different, not better but different. All of the examples above are about attention.
Centering prayer has to do with our intention. In centering prayer, our intention is to open to the presence and action of God in our life. It is about growing in our relationship to God Contemplative Outreach, the international organization founded to introduce and help people sustain their practice, puts it this way,
“Centering prayer is a simple method of silent prayer to deepen our relationship with God. It is a movement beyond conversation into communion with God, beyond words, thoughts, and feelings.”
The method of centering prayer is both simple and transformational. The practice has four guidelines.
The Guidelines are:
- Choose a sacred word as the symbol of your intention to consent to God’s presence and action within.
Gwen Pickering and Tod Twist will be offering a half-day retreat, Introduction to Centering Prayer on Wednesday, January 15, 2025 from 9:00am to 2:00pm.
2. 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.
3. When engaged with your thoughts, return ever-so-gently to the sacred word.
4. At the end of the prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed for a couple of minutes.
When I began Centering Prayer, I read these guidelines and thought I understood the practice. After a year or so, I went to a retreat that S. Virginia was leading at the monastery. She helped clarify some things I didn’t know needed clarifying.
This prayer is very deep and after 20 years, I continue to learn more and more about centering prayer and I continue to grow closer and closer to God and to my true self through it.
If you are practicing centering prayer and have not attended an introduction to centering prayer, I invite you to the Introduction Workshop on January 15.
If you are new to centering prayer and are looking to grow deeper in relationship to God, I would love to have you join us and see if this is a path for you.
One last thing: this prayer practice will change your life. God loves you beyond what you can understand, and sometimes even beyond what you can imagine. As you consent to God’s presence and action within, you will be healed of the wounds of a lifetime–but it will take time. I am not suggesting that it will happen quickly, but it will happen. I see this in the lives of people I know who practice Centering Prayer. People around them notice differences in them–changes for the better. They are more loving, more joyful, more peaceful–these are the gifts I most often hear about coming from this practice of prayer.
God bless you on your journey.
After many years of leading marriage retreats with my husband and teaching about relationships, I heard God call me to the ministry of Spiritual Direction. I was being called to switch from helping people with their relationships with one another to helping them grow in their relationship with the Divine.
I answered the call and enrolled in a program to be a spiritual director at The Franciscan Spirituality Center in La Crosse WI from 2016 to 2019. Because Ignatian Spirituality, particularly the Exercises, have had a huge impact on my life, I also trained to lead the Ignatian Exercise through Sacred Ground in 2020.
I am fascinated by the dance between spirituality, psychology and science – especially quantum physics and neuroscience. I have special interests in healing the unconscious, mindfulness, The Welcoming Prayer, Centering Prayer, Lectio Divina, the Ignatian Exercises, and the way our thoughts and emotions create our world.
Through Benedictine and Ignatian spirituality, I have come to know the radical love God has for each one of us. I am deeply rooted in the Christian Contemplative Tradition and find God in all people, places and things. I am delighted to offer Spiritual Companionship to individuals from all walks of life, faiths, and practices. I see people at my home in Eden Prairie or remotely.