Becoming a YC Facilitator of Centering Prayer
COL Young Contemplatives & Facilitator Service Team are delighted to host expanded weekend online 40s and Under Facilitator Training (two three-hour sessions) for our Younger Contemplatives community.
Our next training is happening: TBD
If you are under 50 and would like to become a facilitator and/or start a Centering Prayer group, please contact colleen@coutreach.org. You may also find helpful information in this brochure.
This training will cover:
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- The Vision of Contemplative Outreach
- The Purpose & Format of a Centering Prayer Group
- What Facilitators ‘Do’
- Guidelines for Faith-Sharing in Centering Prayer Groups
- Growing as a Facilitator
- and How to Get a Group Started (on Zoom or in-person)
Day 1
Will cover The Method of Centering Prayer and exploration around What Facilitators Do and Faith Sharing Guidelines.
Day 2
(Links to the 2023 YC Facilitator Training can be found online here.)
We recommend that Centering Prayer Group Facilitators consider these guidelines when discerning whether to serve a group as a facilitator:
- Maintain a regular practice of Centering Prayer.
- Be available to facilitate regular meetings of a Centering Prayer group.
- Be familiar with the Vision of Contemplative Outreach, Theological Principles with Commentary and Guidelines for Contemplative Outreach Service with Commentary.
- Be available and willing to serve at least one year as a servant-leader.
- Attend a Centering Prayer Introductory Program when possible.
- Be familiar with the three foundational books by Fr. Thomas Keating: Open Mind, Open Heart; Invitation to Love, and Intimacy with God.
- Be familiar with the “Spiritual Journey Series” (DVDs and CDs) by Fr. Thomas Keating.
- Highly Recommended: Attend a Contemplative Outreach Intensive Retreat.
We will also cover topics and issues especially relevant to facilitating Centering Prayer groups for younger contemplatives (ages 21 – 49) such as:
- The importance and use of inclusive language
- Accommodating those who identify as “spiritual but not religious” or inter-spiritual
- The relationship between contemplative prayer and social justice
- The psychology of Centering Prayer (trauma-informed and embodied practice)
For more information or questions, contact Colleen Thomas, Diversity Outreach Coordinator at colleen@coutreach.org
If you’re not quite up for Facilitating Training but would like to become more active in the Younger Contemplatives community, please take a moment to fill out our Getting To Know You Form so we can keep in touch with you.
Fr. Thomas Keating on the Weekly Centering Prayer Support Group
While Centering Prayer is done privately most of the time, a weekly or bi-weekly sharing of the experience in a small group (up to fifteen) has proven to be very supportive, as well as a means of continuing education. The weekly meeting also serves as a means of accountability. Just knowing that one’s support group is meeting together each week is an enormous encouragement to keep praying, and an invitation to return to the practice of Centering Prayer if circumstances such as illness, business, family problems, or urgent duties have prevented one from carrying out one’s commitment to daily practice for a time.
By sharing the experience of Centering Prayer with others, one’s own discernment of the ups and downs of the practice is sharpened. The group not only serves as a source of encouragement but also can normally solve problems that might arise regarding the method. The collective discernment of the group tends to be well balanced. . . .
The purpose of the meeting is spiritual refreshment and mutual encouragement in the practice.
-Open Mind, Open Heart, 20th Anniversary Ed., pp. 173-174.