We normally live on the surface of our minds, the periphery of our lives, the outer façade 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 the right kind of spiritual training moves us beyond feeling trapped in the limited aspects of our human condition to realize something far greater.
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.
Deepening 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, the sacred glance and the presence of God beyond form and symbol.
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 eight contemplative attitudes. Doubt, dispair and attachment to the false self are then transformed in faith, hope and love.
Your Unique Path to God
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?
