If you are new to Centering Prayer or wishing to renew your practice, this retreat will assist you with deepening your relationship with God by focusing on teaching and practicing the method of Centering Prayer.  This course also explores the place of contemplative prayer in the Christian tradition, the conceptual background of Centering Prayer, psychological processes, and insights into establishing Centering Prayer as a way of life.

You can expect 12 emails with links to video and audio teachings to support learning and practicing Centering Prayer.

For more information and to register with our partner, Spirituality & Practice, please go here.

Partial scholarships are available from Contemplative Outreach by filling out this form.

In this, the second offering of the trilogy on Centering Prayer (the first course may be found here), the focus is on how the practice of Centering Prayer serves as a doorway into a process that results in the transformation of our entire being.

The Christian spiritual journey has traditionally been expressed in terms of purification-illumination-union or contemplation, a process wherein the scales fall from our eyes and we experience reality within and without – as it is, rather than through the overlays of our programs for happiness and cultural conditioning. Centering Prayer provides space for these movements to take place, for the Divine Therapist to heal obstacles to the flow of grace through a purification process and to illumine our mind and heart — our whole being — to the Divine Presence, beyond thoughts, words, and emotions.

4 CEHs for chaplains available.

For more information and to register with our partner, Spirituality & Practice, go here.

Partial scholarships are available from Contemplative Outreach by filling out this form.

The third offering in the trilogy on Centering Prayer course explores how the practice of Centering Prayer evolves into a surrendered life of inner peace and equanimity despite the busy and often tumultuous circumstances of daily life in the 21st century. As the inner room begins to expand its walls beyond the twice-daily practice of Centering Prayer, the Spirit takes over our life more and more, and we begin to accept ourselves just as we are, God as God is, and all reality as it is. From this disposition of true humility, enlarged under the influence of God’s grace, we live in the Kingdom of God here and now, which is a state of consciousness ever-attentive to the presence of God in the midst of ordinary life. Go here for more information and to register.

4 CEHs for chaplains available.

For more information and to register with our partner, Spirituality & Practice, go here.

Partial scholarships are available from Contemplative Outreach by filling out this form.

Learn, deepen or renew your practice of this practical and profound prayer with this online retreat. The Welcoming Prayer is a method of consenting to God’s presence and action in our physical and emotional reactions to events and situations in daily life. If Centering Prayer is practiced for one hour of the day, the Welcoming Prayer is for the other 23 hours — a “letting go” in the present moment, in the midst of the activity of ordinary life. It helps to dismantle the emotional programs heal the wounds of a lifetime by addressing them where they are stored — in the body. The Welcoming Prayer is a transformative practice for every day life.

This e-course includes email, video and audio teachings, and was updated in 2024.

For more information and to register with our partner, Spirituality & Practice, please go here.

Partial scholarships are available from Contemplative Outreach by filling out this form.

This online retreat focuses on learning the method of Lectio Divina and incorporating this contemplative way of praying the Scriptures into a daily practice. Subscribers to this online retreat will receive a total of 12 emails with step-by-step instructions in the Lectio Divina method and answers to frequently asked questions. Some of the emails will link to audio recordings and guided meditations, as well as pdf slideshows reviewing key concepts covered in the emails.

For more infomation and to register with our partner, Spirituality & Practice, please go here.

Partial scholarships are available from Contemplative Outreach by filling out this form.

This e-course was updated in 2022 from earlier versions offered in 2008 and 2014. It teaches the contemplative Prayer of Forgiveness practice and includes guided audio meditations, recorded Zoom practice sessions and Q&A with Mary Dwyer.

Forgiving is one of the most difficult and complex gestures and, like love, it is one of the things which defines the essence of our humanity. In fact, the contemplative dimension of forgiveness reveals that at its core, forgiveness is a divine gift of love, a movement of love so profound that it reveals the truth of our nature — fully human and enlivened with the divine potential.

Yet, the very fact that we do not forgive, or find forgiveness so difficult, reveals other essential qualities of our humanness — the acquired programming of the human condition and our free will. We’ve inherited ways of being and ways of perceiving.  And we’ve been gifted with the ability to choose. In seeking to live a contemplative life in the modern world, we are invited to make intentional, compassionate choices.

Register for this e-course here.

Partial scholarship from Contemplative Outreach available here.

This e-course explores the contemplative approach to discerning the small and large decisions in life, which comes from cultivating a life practice of unceasing prayer (whatever types of prayer that may encompass for you) and calling on the Holy Spirit for guidance. Discernment means sorting our thoughts and following the impulse of grace given by the Holy Spirit. As Sr. Meg writes, “Since we are not our thoughts, we can observe them rising and follow the ones that are from God.” This is a way of coming more awake and discovering the spark of divinity burning in our hearts. The course combines email and video teachings of Sr. Meg Funk and a recorded interview with her.

For more infomation and to register with our partner, Spirituality & Practice, please go here.

Partial scholarships are available from Contemplative Outreach by filling out this form.

We live in a world of complexity, fragmentation, noise, and haste. We sometimes find ourselves overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of tasks, appointments, commitments and concerns facing us. How can we experience God amid the busyness, responsibilities, and activities of our daily lives? By practice. By living more in the present moment. By practicing the presence of God in the present moment.

In truth, the Presence is always there and available in each moment of our lives. We can abide in this Presence as we prepare dinner, help our children with their homework, take a phone call, go shopping, attend a contentious business meeting, or walk down the street. The practice is surprisingly simple: Pay attention to what you are doing and do it for the love of God. Fr. Thomas said that as Centering Prayer develops, it begins to be expressed in acts of love, until it becomes habitual and the normal occupations of the mind are transferred to the heart, which he termed “heartfulness”.

This online retreat explores in depth the contemplative prayer practice of resting in the present moment with attention and intention. Our mentors are three Christians who modeled this way: Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection who cultivated the presence of God as he worked as a monastery cook, St. Therese of Lisieux who is known for her little way of devotion through daily activities, and Jean-Pierre De Caussade who taught that every moment of our lives could become a sacrament of communion with the Divine. Teachings from Thomas Keating and other contemplative wisdom voices are woven throughout.  We will also use the breath as an anchor for our attention and body awareness as a key to staying in the moment with loving attention.

The practice-based retreat supports of life of being and Presence.  It consists of email content, which link to audio and video teachings, a guided I AM audio meditation, and mini-practices such as active prayer and Welcoming Prayer.

Register here for this self-guided, online retreat. Partial scholarships are offered by Contemplative Outreach; you may apply here.

This is an interactive online retreat to encourage a life of prayer and practice, both “on the chair” and in daily life. This course will support you in making a deeper commitment to your relationship with God, and strengthen your ability to live the contemplative life through dedication to prayer and practice, all within the normal routines of everyday life.

This e-course has been designed as a review of contemplative prayer practices for those who already engage in this form of prayer as well as those who would like to begin such a practice.

Led by Mary Dwyer, a long-time practitioner of Centering Prayer and student of Fr. Thomas Keating, this retreat is a four-week practicum based on a series of four questions, inspired by the teachings of Fr. Basil Pennington.

More Information…

To register for this e-course, go here.