Contemplative Outreach Newsletter 

Volume 1, Number 1
1986

Centering Prayer--God's Presence Within

Centering Prayer is a means of enabling us to go beyond the superficial, and to experience God's presence. During the time of prayer, our attention is "centered" on God's presence within. Afterwards, in active life, our attention moves outward to discover His presence everywhere else. Centering Prayer is not meant to replace other kinds of prayer, but puts them into a new perspective. Centering Prayer presents the teachings of earlier times in an updated way that is designed to encourage us to bring order and regularity to our prayer life.

The experience of interior silence or "resting in God" is beyond thinking images and emotions. This awareness tells us that the core of our being is eternal and indestructible, and that we, as person, are loved by God and share in His divine life. The ripe fruit of Contemplative prayer is to bring into the routine of daily life, not just the thought of God, but the spontaneous awareness of the abiding Divine Presence in, through and beyond everything.

Genesis and History

In the 1970's, at the guest house of St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts, a group of Trappists - including Fr. Thomas Keating (then Abbot of St. Joseph's), Fr. Basil Pennington Fr. William Menninger and Fr. Raphael Simon--began presenting the method of Centering Prayer. Since then interest in Centering Prayer has gone far beyond the guest house. The method has been offered to a growing number of clergy and laity in America. Centering Prayer groups have sprung up in local parishes, religious centers, and in private homes throughout the United States and Canada.

Support Network

This growing interest led to the creation of Contemplative Outreach, that is committed to human transformation in the Christian Contemplative tradition by helping people to love the contemplative dimension of the Gospel in the midst of an active life within our contemporary society.

Contemplative Outreach offers programs that introduce persons to Contemplative Prayer. They include - 1 ) introductory workshops in Centering Prayer, 2 ) a format for weekly support groups, 3 ) intensive Centering Prayer retreats, 4) information about books, articles, tapes. We hope to facilitate an informal network of individuals and faith communities practicing Contemplative Prayer.

Contemplative Outreach Project--New York Pilot Program

In 1984 in the Archdiocese of New York, the Thomas Merton Center for Religious Studies, directed by Rev. Paul Dinter, sponsored a pilot project to offer Centering Prayer to parishes in the New York area. The experimental program's goal was to determine If there was interest in learning Centering Prayer on the parish level.

The project was conducted under the Chairmanship of Fr. Thomas Keating. Thanks to the efforts of the coordinators, Mary Mrozowski, Gus Reininger and Ed Bednar, over 1,800 persons attended the parish Introductory Workshops in Centering Prayer. Workshops ranged from 250 people at Holy Trinity Church to a group of seven Sisters at St. Hilda's House.

The Pilot Project also developed teaching materials and course formats for introductory workshops, support groups and intensive workshops. It also began a computer project that created a network of individuals and groups interested in contemplative prayer. A training program for Facilitator--persons who teach Centering prayer--was also developed.

The interest in Centering Prayer created by the Pilot Program resulted in an overwhelming number of requests for Centering Prayer retreats. Contemplative Outreach established a retreat center at West Cronwall, Connecticut, in the foothills of the Berkshires. It is staffed by the Contemplative Outreach Community and supports for the projects in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Contemplative Outreach Community 
by David Frenette

In September 1985 Fr. Thomas Keating celebrated a Mass to open the Contemplative Outreach Community, a live-in contemplative community under his guidance. Our first coregroup members are Mary Mrozowski, Bob Bartel, and myself. Our initial months have been spent establishing our communal life. We established a schedule of morning and evening, hour-long sessions of contemplative prayer, a brief office, a common meal and five or six hours of work. Slowly we have grown into a center of prayer in which others can share. This March, six months old, the Community hosted a ten day intensive program for 12 Facilitators led by Fr. Thomas.

Centering Prayer Learning Facilitators

The ideal way to learn Centering Prayer is to attend a workshop led by a trained Facilitator who has had enough exposure to Contemplative Prayer to teach from their own personal experience. Learning Centering Prayer is the transmission of a process, not just the understanding of concepts.

Contemplative Outreach has developed a program for the training of facilitators that involves an intensive Centering Prayer experience--5 hours a day for 10 to 14 days--as well as a conceptual framework for understanding and teaching Centering Prayer to others.

There are a limited, but growing, number of Facilitators who give introductory workshops. Contemplative Outreach, through its networking, might be able to put you in touch with someone in your area.

From Prayer Into Action

Two outstanding social initiatives are sustained by the Centering Prayer experience. The SHARE PROGRAM, established by Deacon Carl Shelton of San Diego is a self-help program for feeding the poor in the United States and Mexico that has spread to other cities, including New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, Newark and Southern Virginia.

FOOD FOR THE POOR, founded by Ferdinand Mahfood, sends trailer trucks loads of food regularly to ghettos in Jamaica and Haiti. At the beginning of this year, FOOD FOR THE POOR has sent over 20 billion dollars in supplies. For information, please write FOOD FOR THE POOR - 1301 West Copans Road, Pompano Beach, Florida 33064.

Updates

New York Facilitators

They have undertaken a semi-monthly introductory workshop series designed to introduce people to Centering Prayer. History, theory, and practice are offered at workshops attracting upwards of 20 people from all walks of life. Introductory Workshops will be given October l0th and 11th, 1986 at St. Jean Baptist Church, 184 East 76th Street. A Retreat will be held November l4th and l5th, 1986 at St. Frances of Assisi, 135 West 3lst Street. 

Alive in New Jersey. . . 

The Mount St. Mary House of Prayer in Watchung, New Jersey makes Centering Prayer available to people in suburban New Jersey. Rev. Carl Arico, director of Personnel in Ministry of the Archdiocese of Newark, and the three Sisters who administer the House of Prayer facilitate a weekly support group meeting on Tuesday evenings.

Newcomers are welcome to join those already practicing Centering Prayer groups. The support group meeting consists of a period of Centering

Prayer, a contemplative walk, lectio divina (spiritual reading in common) and a time for discussion and sharing.

In Butler, New Jersey a support group meets every other Sunday evening at the home of Gail Fitzpatrick-Hopler.

On Long Island, Queens and Brooklyn. . .

Over a dozen support groups are now offered by facilitators. Flourishing for the past five years these groups hold weekly meetings and have organized retreats at the Contemplative Outreach Community.

The leaders of the Brooklyn/Queens Diocese Charismatic Renewal Group recently held an Introductory Workshop for their organization.

Florida - East and West. . .

Centering Prayer in South Florida has seen a lot of expansion through the service of Raul Garcia-Cassariego and Father Bill Sheehan, the director of the Ministry of Priest's Center of the Archdiocese of Miami.

Father Basil Pennington led a Centering Prayer retreat in the Spring of 1985 and in January of this year, Fr. Thomas Keating conducted an intensive, ten-day workshop for 40 persons already practicing Centering Prayer.

From these initiatives, several support groups have organized and meet regularly including an Hispanic group. 

On Florida's West Coast, Sr. Boniface's Episcopal Church in Sarasota, hosted an introductory workshop with Fr. Keating. 

There is also a support group in the Tampa area. 

Chicago . . .

In the Archdiocese of Chicago, Rev. Wayne Prist, the director of the Center for Pastoral Ministry, sponsored an introductory workshop at the Cardinal Strich Retreat House this February which was attended by 25 priests from the Chicago area.

The Rockies and Beyond. . .

Fr. Thomas Keating continues to conduct 10 day intensive workshops (facilitator training) in Centering Prayer at the guest house facilities at St. Benedict's Monastery, in Snowmass, CO., where he resides.

Pat Johnson (who staffs the St. Benedict's and works as Father Thomas' aide) also coordinates Introductory workshops and retreats to groups in the Aspen/Snowmass area.

In Denver, Canon David Morgan, of St. John's Episcopal Cathedral, coordinates three weekly support groups as well as retreats and quiet days throughout the year.

New Mexico . . . Albuquerque

Exodus Center, devoted to fostering contemplative prayer, directed by Father Ray Gunzel, hosted an introductory weekend workshop for priests of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. Archbishop Robert Sanchez and 30 priests attended.

The Centering Prayer Method has also been introduced in several Benedictine Monasteries, including St. Vincent's, Latrobe, PA and St. John's Abbey, Collegeville, MN.

The Trappist Monasteries of men and women around the country have monks or nuns who are familiar with the Centering Prayer practice and might share information and instructions about the method.