Centering Prayer Meditation
Methods and Group
Centring Prayer (or Centering Prayer in the American spelling) is a Christian, prayerful, content-less meditation practice. It is not meditation with words or images (in Latin, meditatio) but rather a meditation without words or images, a way of making yourself silent and serene, ready for content-less resting in the holy Presence- in Latin contemplatio).
A group meets fortnightly in collaboration with the fraciscan Centre, at Porziuncola House, Bahar ic-Caghaq. The group is for serious Centering Prayer practice and for a contemplative dialogue on the contemplative path towards closer union with the divine in our life and work, and on the subterfuges employed by the ordinary self or ego to desperately meet its own needs and keep itself the imagined centre of everything. Write to efs@antidemalta.org or SMS or talk to Tony on 79326725. Is your parish or agency contemplative-friendly? We'll help you set up a practice group. Fellowship, deep peace, emotional stability and inner joy are side-effects! Regular practice is crucial.
This contemplative practice will open you to a more contemplative lifestyle, marked by side-effects of inner peace, emotional stability, freedom, and deep inner joy. Here is instruction from the master, in the form of two 7-minute video clips. Fr Thomas Keating O.C.S.O. View them several times. Fr Thomas and his Trappist colleagues and lay persons founded the world network called Contemplative Outreach (www.contemplativeoutreach.org) which is our inspiration.
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In the above two video clips, Part 1 (left) and Part 2 (right) about 8 minutes each, the Trappist monk abbott Fr Thomas Keating presents the simple guidelines for practicing Centering Prayer, and some of the profound consequences for the seeker of God. An illustrated document has been produced with the transcript of the above video-clips. It includes the diagram he uses in the second clip. You will find it useful for following the video clips, or as a stand-alone document. Download the 1MB PDF document here: Transcript in English. Coming soon: Translation of Transcript into Maltese
VIDEO Here below are the (above) video clips in English by Trappist Abbott Fr Thomas Keating with both Maltese and English captions visible on-screen
simultaneously, and clarified diagrams. Download it to your computer or mobile phone so that you can play it at any time.
VIDEO Part 1 - Guidelines for Centering Prayer - Part 1 (8 minutes) 833MB
VIDEO Part 2 - Guidelines for Centering Prayer - Part 2 (8 minutes) 680MB
Get Folder with both files
VIDEO Here below are the (above) video clips in English by Trappist Abbott Fr Thomas Keating with both Maltese and English captions visible on-screen
simultaneously, and clarified diagrams. Download it to your computer or mobile phone so that you can play it at any time.
VIDEO Part 1 - Guidelines for Centering Prayer - Part 1 (8 minutes) 833MB
VIDEO Part 2 - Guidelines for Centering Prayer - Part 2 (8 minutes) 680MB
Get Folder with both files
Centering Prayer groups in Malta
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DOWNLOAD LEAFLETS
Download an illustrated inspirational leaflet (see above) with quotations from spiritual teachers on Centring Prayer. English. Malti
Download a leaflet from Contemplative Outreach describing the method of Centring Prayer Meditation. English -- Malti -- Italiano
Each of these leaflets is a 2-page PDF file - a truly valuable resource for you to keep. If you use it, it will enhance your life in many ways.
Here is a somewhat similar one-page explanation in English by Fr Thomas Keating: download.
Download an illustrated inspirational leaflet (see above) with quotations from spiritual teachers on Centring Prayer. English. Malti
Download a leaflet from Contemplative Outreach describing the method of Centring Prayer Meditation. English -- Malti -- Italiano
Each of these leaflets is a 2-page PDF file - a truly valuable resource for you to keep. If you use it, it will enhance your life in many ways.
Here is a somewhat similar one-page explanation in English by Fr Thomas Keating: download.
Centering and Contemplative Prayer Definition of Terms
Source, Credit: Thanks to The Contemplative Network at www.contemplative.net/
- APOPHATIC – The exercise of pure faith; resting in God beyond concepts and particular acts, except to maintain a general loving attention to the divine presence.
- CENTERING PRAYER – A contemporary form of prayer of the heart, prayer of simplicity, prayer of faith, prayer of simple regard; a method of reducing the obstacles of the gift of contemplative prayer and of facilitation the development of habits conducive to responding to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
- CONTEMPLATION – A synonym for contemplative prayer. The development of ones relationship with Christ to the point of communing beyond words, thoughts, and feelings; a process of moving from the simplified activity of waiting upon God to the ever-increasing predominance of the gifts of the Holy Spirit as the source of one’s prayer.
- DIVINE THERAPY – A paradigm in which the spiritual journey is presented as a form of psychotherapy designed to heal the emotional wounds of early childhood and our mechanisms for coping with them.
- DIVINE UNION – A term describing either a single experience of the union of all the faculties in God, or the permanent state of union called transformation.
- ECSTASY – The temporary suspension by the divine action of the thinking and feeling faculties including at times the external senses, which facilitates the experience of the prayer of full divine union.
- KATAPHATIC – The exercise of the rational faculties enlightened by faith; the affective response to symbols, reflection, and the use of reason, imagination, and memory, in order to assimilate the truths of faith.
- LECTIO DIVINA – Reading or more exactly, listening to the book we believe to be divinely inspired; the most ancient method of developing the friendship of Christ, using scripture texts as topics of conversation with Christ.
- MEDITATION – In the Christian tradition a general term meaning either (1) continued, intent, focused thought which is from the Latin meditatio or (2) a state of quiet, intentionally unfocused, contentless awareness generally known as contemplation from the Latin contemplatio.
- MYSTICISM – Also known as mystical prayer; a synonym for contemplation.
- TRANFORMATION – Also known as transforming union; the stable conviction of the abiding presence of God rather than a particular experience or set of experiences; a restructuring of consciousness in which the divine reality is perceived to be present in oneself and in all that is.