For dates, times and more information, go to The Training ProcessTraining_Process.html
Click Here to go to a special page to download a nine minute explanation of the Training by David FrenetteDeepening_Video.html

Some Topics of the Practice Classes:


(1)    Practicing with the Sacred Word of Faith

(2)    Practicing with the Sacred Breath of Hope

(3)    Practicing with the Sacred Glance of Love

(4)    Practicing in Freedom Beyond Form and Symbol

(5)    Practicing with All Life as a Sacred Symbol

Foundations of the Training


     You will be grounded in the three Foundations of the Training, as found in the first branch of the Path of Centering Prayer, on Deepening:


(1)    Thomas Keating’s teachings on deepening the sacred symbol in Centering Prayer

(2)    The Infused Life of God

(3)    The Eight Contemplative Attitudes

Training in Deepening

Centering Prayer:


  1. Bullet    Helps you overcome the illusion that thoughts, feelings and effort are obstacles to your prayer


  1. Bullet    Helps you awaken more easily to the ever-present gift of God’s life within and around you


  1. Bullet    Helps you move more easily beyond the form of the sacred symbol into the freedom of contemplative prayer


  1. Bullet    Helps you integrate sitting practice with activity


  1. Bullet    Prepares you for skillful practice in the other seven branches of the Path of Centering Prayer


  1. Bullet    Helps transform spiritual darkness, allowing you to enfold doubt in contemplative faith, despair in contemplative hope, attachment to the false self in contemplative love, and spiritual death in new life

    Putting on the mind which was in Christ Jesus.    (Ph 2:5)

The Descent of the Spirit at Pentecost

Surface Life We normally live on the surface of our minds, the periphery of our lives, the outer facade of our sense of who we are. Rambling thoughts, emotional turmoil, isolation from God -- these experiences often deter people from beginning contemplative prayer, and cause problems for those already on the journey. Even more troubling to those already practicing are the doubt, despair and attachment to the false self that come during times of spiritual darkness. We bring these kinds of experiences with us into prayer. In fact, contemplative practice confronts us with our human condition. More skillful contemplative practice that is developed through this training moves us beyond feeling trapped in the limited aspects of our human condition to realize something far greater. Incarnational training in Deepening Centering Prayer gives you a very developed yet still simple practice to more easily deepen your Centering Prayer into the freedom of contemplation. Greater human skillfulness in prayer opens you to the abundance of divine grace. Greater depth brings greater freedom, greater life, greater ability to serve others. The Training’s Foundation Rather than introducing foreign elements, a skillful contemplative practice utilizes that which is natural to us. For the Incarnational practice of Deepening Centering Prayer, what is natural to us are God, the sacred symbol, and our growing experience of the ways the sacred symbol changes in our prayer relationship with God. The foundation of the Training in Deepening Centering Prayer draws from the perspectives of the first branch of the Path of Centering Prayer. This branch includes the basic introductory guidelines of Centering Prayer, Thomas Keating’s more subtle teachings on how to relate to the sacred symbol as prayer deepens, and the traditional Christian contemplative understanding of what the infused life of God in us is. Incarnational Practice of Centering Prayer Like gourmet cooking, the actual practice combines these seemingly separate elements in a rich and nourishing recipe for depth. Because we continually lose connection with God, in the Training we learn how to deepen our prayer through skillfully practicing with all of Centering Prayer’s different types of sacred symbols: the sacred word, the sacred breath and the sacred glance. Skillfully practicing with these differentiated sacred symbols expresses the infused life of faith, hope and love in our prayer -- bringing us closer to God in contemplative unknowing, forgetting and pure surrender. The differentiated sacred symbols are then deepened through all eight contemplative attitudes. Doubt, despair and attachment to the false self are then transformed in faith, hope and love. Your Unique Path to God Everyone has a different “spiritual temperament,” a unique way we use our humanness to connect with God. Understanding your particular spiritual typology can be immensely helpful in moving you through the challenges on the contemplative path. The training will identify your spiritual temperament, and help guide you in how to work with it to enhance your spiritual progress. Too often we struggle on our own in Centering Prayer. Receiving training and guidance allows practice to deepen into prayer, God’s life to awaken within our life, the divine to enfold the human. The depth’s of God’s light, life and love are always here. Why remain on the surface, missing out on the depth of life? Deepening_Prayer.htmlDeepening_Prayer.htmlshapeimage_4_link_0shapeimage_4_link_1
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