Q: I’ve been doing Centering Prayer for six months. I find it so hard. I’ve never felt any quiet or silence. I just turn up but I’m always saying the sacred word because I don’t stop thinking. Does it ever change? I say to God, “I’m here, this is it.”
A: Thanks for your comment. How good that you have continued turning up to do Centering Prayer when you find it so hard! That’s persistence, and will carry you through. There is actually no goal to stop thinking. The third guideline of the Method of Centering Prayer is “When engaged with your thoughts, return ever-so-gently to the sacred word.” This guideline assumes that there are thoughts happening, and that you will find that you get engaged in some of those thoughts. When (not if) you get engaged, you return to your sacred word. So, thoughts are always going by. They might, or they might not, slow down, but they will keep coming. As long as they are going by, you don’t have to do anything. When a thought engages you, when you find yourself “thinking about the thought”, when you are caught up in the thought and pursuing it, that’s when you return to the sacred word. The goal is not quiet or silence, but rather consent to the presence and action of God within. Your disposition to say to God, “I’m here, this is it,” is perfect, because it’s consent to whatever happens in the prayer. Hang in there, and let God continue to work in you.
– Susan Turpin, Contemplative Outreach volunteer and Centering Prayer retreat leader, Oregon, USA
