Q: Thank you all for your support and prayers, for your hard work and commitment. I am practicing Centering Prayer for over two years. I started with a group of ten people in the prison chapel. Now, I do my Centering Prayer alone; all the members of the group quit the practice within two weeks. Centering Prayer has gotten me closer and closer to experience what a true connection with God feels like. Centering Prayer practice is getting me to change stubborn behaviors. Now I am at peace with myself and with others. I see life and everything around me with new eyes. I can see, hear, smell, touch and taste the beauty and holiness of creation. I am more alive. I am in the present and appreciate every moment of my existence. I feel more and more the love of my Creator. I believe that contemplative prayer is about getting to feel the intensity of God’s love for us. I also practice mindfulness, yoga, and daily exercise. I attend my Catholic service and pray daily. Centering Prayer has not only improved my spirituality but also has enhanced my memory and my creativity. I became resilient and tolerant. I manage emotions in a positive and productive way. I want to get other prisoners involved in Centering Prayer but they are not interested. They are too absorbed in other things. I don’t know what to do to get them involved. I hope you can give some advice and/or provide me with some fliers or pamphlets. Thank you all.
A: Thank you for your letter to the Prison Outreach Service Team. We remember when you wrote us a couple years ago eager to start a Centering Prayer group. And you did! We are sorry to hear that the other members of the group did not stay with the practice, and we can understand how frustrating this is.
We can imagine that it is especially sad for you because you know the fruits of this prayer practice in your own life and want to share them with others. We are thankful to read how it has benefited you, in changing stubborn behavior, becoming more resilient and tolerant, giving you greater peace with yourself and others and more of an appreciation of life and the love of God.
We believe that God’s love is being shared through you, whether you ever start a group or not, because in living your life more in tune with God’s will, you are demonstrating God’s love to those with whom you come in contact.
We plant the seed but only God can cause it to grow. You have followed God’s calling in trying to start a Centering Prayer group. Perhaps now God is calling you to let go of that desire to start a group, just as God calls us to let go of so much in the Centering Prayer practice. But perhaps not – we don’t know. We just offer this as something to think about. We don’t have specific suggestions to get people to attend a group if their interest in it just isn’t there. The practice has made you more resilient and tolerant, and God will give you the strength to accept whatever happens. Perhaps simply in living your life and appreciating it all as you do, others will get more interested in what it is that results in your living your life this way.
Since you have received our one main pamphlet plus the book Open Mind, Open Heart and are getting the Theophilus letters, we will send you another book by Thomas Keating, Invitation to Love. We pray that it may be further support for you in your personal practice of Centering Prayer.
May God continue to bless and keep you. Please pray for us as we pray for you.
With you in the prayer,
The Prison Outreach Service Team
