Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Is Centering Prayer Catholic?
    Is Centering Prayer Catholic?
    Is Centering Prayer Catholic?
    Ebook156 pages3 hours

    Is Centering Prayer Catholic?

    By Connie Rossini

    5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    What is Centering Prayer? What are its origins? Is it a form of New Age meditation, or a thoroughly Catholic prayer method that can lead to contemplation? Connie Rossini digs into the writings and public statements of Fr. Thomas Keating, creator of the Centering Prayer movement. She compares his words with the writings of St. Teresa of Avila on prayer and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on New Age spirituality. This Second Edition also responds to author Kess Frey, who was commissioned by Contemplative Outreach to write a book answering critics of Centering Prayer. Foreword by Dr. Anthony Lilles, Dean of St. John's Seminary in Camarillo, California. Find out if Centering Prayer is a reliable method for union with God, or a counterfeit that Catholics should avoid.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFour Waters Press
    Release dateOct 28, 2018
    ISBN9781393502586
    Is Centering Prayer Catholic?

    Read more from Connie Rossini

    Related to Is Centering Prayer Catholic?

    Related ebooks

    Christianity For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      THE WAR FOR OUR YOUTH Why creation still matters

      Dec 30, 2019

      We’re being told by public education systems, universities, media, some parents, and unfortunately many church leaders, that parts of the Bible are not relevant anymore and that we need to reinvent God’s word. So, with this situation, in order to und

      3 min read

    • Article

      At Fellowship Church, Faith Knows No Creed Or Color

      Jul 19, 2021

      The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples, founded in 1944, transcends barriers of race, color, and creed, uniting instead in a shared humanity.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Do You Practice Buddhism Together With Another Faith?

      Mar 19, 2019

      Buddhism dovetails beautifully with my Catholic upbringing, as the practice of meditation is akin to prayer. It’s a daily habit to find stillness in my heart and the peaceful place where I believe God and my basic goodness inhabit. The mala beads I h

      2 min read

    • Article

      Sunday, April 26

      Feb 14, 2020

      I WAS RAISED IN A denomination that discouraged visiting other churches, so finding a faith community when I became a Christian eighteen years ago was a quandary. But once I overcame my inhibitions, exploring different denominations became interestin

      1 min read

    • Article

      Pray And Wash: Finding Church In Unexpected Places

      Mar 7, 2019

      When Julie Butcher goes to church, she looks forward to giving thanks to God, lending a supportive hand, breaking bread with friends – and helping people wash a tub of clothes.  “The laundromat is my church,” says Ms. Butcher, an Episcopal Church dea

      11 min read

    • Article

      Time For The Church To Embark On A Navel-gazing Exercise

      Mar 31, 2024

      FOR any political structure that fails in the absence of moral direction, it would seem natural for it to turn to organised religion for leadership. Unfortunately, the direction of most modern institutional religion is decidedly secular. The institu

      5 min read

    • Article

      Stumbling Blocks That Delay Church Transformation Part 5

      May 20, 2022

      In my previous writings I have pointed out that institutionalised Christianity is fading away. Organised religious systems are sucking the life of Christ out of believers. In many cases, believers are busy with the church programme, but not with God.

      2 min read

    • Article

      From Sharing Circles To House Churches, Young People Are Transforming Worship

      Jun 9, 2022

      It’s a familiar, even tired, story: Young people have turned away from religion, probably for good. They’re skeptical, jaded, plain uninterested. As congregations shrink, spiritual leaders wring their hands, wondering how to attract the next generati

      6 min read

    • Article

      A Rosary In My Pocket

      May 23, 2023

      A Rosary In My Pocket
      4 min read

    • Article

      Commentary: Grappling with Catholicism

      Mar 8, 2019

      I am still a practicing Catholic. To write that now seems to beg an explanation. How can I continue to profess the faith within the bounds of an institution so thoroughly corrupted by the gravest of sins? How can I accept the host from the hands of m

      4 min read

    • Article

      Keeping The Faith

      Oct 28, 2022

      Keeping The Faith
      3 min read

    • Article

      Uncharted Cultural Waters

      Mar 18, 2022

      Uncharted Cultural Waters
      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Is Centering Prayer Catholic?

    5/5

    2 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Connie Rossini does a great job explaining the true origins of the method known as Centering Prayer created by Fr. Keating and promoted by the Contemplative Outreach group. The author skillfully refutes the claims that CP is found in the ancient mystical tradition of the Church and shows the deep Buddhist roots of this movement born in the early 1970’s. With copious quotes from the sources and referring to Church’s documents and the true mystical tradition of the saints, Connie Rossini proves that Centering Prayer is at odds with true Catholic spirituality.

      1 person found this helpful

    Book preview

    Is Centering Prayer Catholic? - Connie Rossini

    Part I

    Fr. Thomas Keating Meets Teresa of Ávila and the CDF

    The History of Centering Prayer

    The website of Contemplative Outreach, Ltd., was started by Centering Prayer practitioners in conjunction with Trappist Abbot Fr. Thomas Keating. It says that Centering Prayer came about as Fr. Keating, Fr. Basil Pennington, and Fr. William Meninger pondered the Catholic spiritual tradition in response to Vatican II. Fr. Keating similarly writes of how Centering Prayer continues traditional practices of contemplative Catholic prayer:

    This tradition was handed on by the Hesychists of Eastern Orthodox tradition, and in particular by the sixth-century Syrian monk known as Pseudo-Dionysius; Meister Eckhart, John Ruysbroek, and the Rhineland mystics of the Middle Ages; the anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing in the fourteenth century; later by the Carmelite tradition exemplified by Teresa of Ávila, John of the Cross, Therese of Lisieux, and Elizabeth of the Trinity; and in the last century by Thomas Merton.[4]

    Digging deeper yields slightly more complex origins for Centering Prayer. In the 1970s the monks of St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts held dialogs with Buddhists and Hindus. A Zen Buddhist gave week-long retreats at the abbey. Former monk Paul Marechal, who had left Christianity to practice Transcendental Meditation, also instructed the men of the abbey. All this happened while Fr. Keating was abbot. Fr. Keating wanted to find a way for people who had been involved with or active in eastern spiritualities to instead be drawn to the Catholic faith.[5]

    In a later interview, Fr. Keating says:

    I read the Gospel from a different perspective and saw the truth of Zen in much of the Gospel. Buddhism is a very advanced religion. Roshi Sasaki, who is still functioning at 89 in Mount Baldy in Los Angeles, thought that Zen could help Christians become better Christians. He saw — and I would certainly adhere to his insight — that there is a certain Zen quality in all religions. It is a fundamental religious attitude. Centering prayer is very rich but quite diffuse and tends to put the emphasis on grace in a way that perhaps needs to be balanced by the Zen attitude, which is that we have to do something, too.[6]

    Later, the theology of Fr. Thomas Merton (who had his own problems with syncretism) was added to the mix. Fr. Meninger began to explore The Cloud of Unknowing as another way to connect the traditions of eastern religions and Christianity. Taking all these sources together, he created a simple form of meditation that became known as Centering Prayer. After Fr. Keating gave a retreat on Centering Prayer at the (New Age) Lama Center in San Cristobal, California, in 1983, Contemplative Outreach was formed. Centering Prayer has since been taught in parishes and retreat centers throughout the world.[7]

    While the intentions of Fathers Keating, Pennington, and Meninger were probably innocent, that does not necessarily mean that the results were good.

    It would seem to an objective observer that Letter to the Bishops meant to include Centering Prayer in its criticisms:

    Caught up in the movement towards openness and exchanges between various religions and cultures, [some Christians] are of the opinion that their prayer has much to gain from these [non-Christian] methods. Observing that in recent times many traditional methods of meditation, especially Christian ones, have fallen into disuse, they wonder whether it might not now be possible, by a new training in prayer, to enrich our heritage by incorporating what has until now been foreign to it.[8]

    Although Contemplative Outreach claims that Centering Prayer is the one contemporary form of contemplative practice that does not make use of any of these [non-Christian] techniques,[9] Fr. Keating’s words quoted above call that claim into question, as does a comparison of traditional Catholic prayer practices with Centering Prayer. What does it mean to balance the Catholic understanding of prayer with the Zen attitude, as he suggested we should do? Did the influence of Zen Buddhism on Centering Prayer remain on the level of attitude, or did it also influence Centering Prayer’s method? Fr. Keating plainly teaches, in the words of the CDF, that traditional methods of prayer have fallen into disuse and calls for a new training in prayer. It would be odd if, given the starting point of the Centering Prayer movement, no foreign elements were incorporated in this

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1