Centering Prayer, Glossolalia & Contemplation

There have been concerns, both theological and psychological, expressed regarding
Centering Prayer. Those are real enough, especially the caveat that one should be both
psychologically stable and in a supportive community. In many ways, those concerns
have been overwrought, at least in the sense that spiritual and psychological rewards
have been underemphasized and risks overemphasized. Critiques have not always been
sufciently nuanced or irenic, so too often have been more hypercritical than
constructive, both theologically and psychologically.
In my view, both Centering Prayer and Praying in Tongues, integrally considered --- in an
holistic context of formative spirituality, the contemplative tradition, pastoral theology,
psychological health, modern cognitive science and various clinical settings --- have so
much to offer those, who with humility and charity, desire to see Him more clearly, Love
Him more dearly and follow Him more nearly, day by day.
First, we best distinguish between a
1) prayer practice or means or method, which is contemplative;
2) associated cognitive-affective dispositions and their neurocorrelates or felt
contemplative experiences, including consolations & desolations requiring discernment;
and
3) the terminus or ends or ultimate goals in terms of transformation or our love of God
and neighbor (including even our self and the cosmos) via our habitual cooperation with
the gifts of the Spirit.
The link below takes one to quotes and citations I've gathered to support my
recommendation of both Glossolalia and Centering Prayer to all sincere seekers, who are
thus disposed.
The way I taste and see things is that the experiences
of no self, empirical self, dynamical self, communal self and contemplative self ...
of unitary reality, creatio continua, ens necessarium, mysterium tremendum and unitive
reality ...
of satori, connaturality, theoria, philosophical contemplation and theologia ...
of truth, beauty, goodness, unity and freedom ....
are all indispensable moments --- call them notes, keys, measures, bars, tempos,
harmonies, etc -in a singular movement --- call it a symphony. They may variously
crescendo or decrescendo or even rest or be muted, but each is necessary, none alone
sufcient, in every value-laden encounter. Few of us are maestros or virtuosos, but we
each sound all of these notes, every time we realize a value. We may do so inchoately,
implicitly, subconsciously, unconsciously ... but ... switching metaphors ... we touch
every base before heading home.

Beauty, goodness, unity and freedom are the denition of truth. Goodness, unity, freedom
and truth dene beauty. And so on.
A CS Lewis-ism, paraphrase - any of these values wrenched from their context in the
whole will get swollen to madness in its isolation. Another, asking which of these
moments is most critical in a value-realization movement is like asking which blade of a
pair of scissors is most necessary (think edward scissorhands, here).
Unitary reality, whether touched via satori or even discursively, is presupposed in unitive
reality, as well as mysterium and necessarium and creatio encounters. One aspect may
come into full relief, while others recede, or gure-ground reversals may cascade
kalaidescopically, but the ascetical presupposes the mystical
presupposes the mystical and vice versa, both supernatural and graced, mutually
interdependent.
https://www.academia.edu/26282201/Centering_Prayer_Glossolalia_and_Contemplatio
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