Centering prayer

Seeds of what would become known as contemplation, for which the Greek term θεωρία theoria is also used,[10] were sown early in the Christian era.

The earliest Christian writings that clearly speak of contemplative prayer come from the 4th-century monk St. John Cassian, who wrote of a practice he learned from the Desert Fathers (specifically from Isaac). Cassian's writings remained influential until the medieval era when monastic practice shifted from a mystical orientation to Scholasticism. During the 16th century, Carmelite saints Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross wrote and taught about advanced Christian prayer, which was given the name infused contemplation.

The 20th century Trappist monk and writer Thomas Merton was influenced by Buddhist meditation, particularly as found in Zen. He was a lifetime friend of Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh, praised Chogyam Trungpa who founded Shambhala Buddhism in the United States and was also an acquaintance of the current Dalai Lama. His theology attempted to unify existentialism with the tenets of the Roman Catholic faith.[11] As such he was also an advocate of the non-rational meditation of contemplative prayer, which he saw as a direct confrontation of finite and irrational man with his ground of being.

Cistercian monk Father Thomas Keating, a founder of Centering Prayer, was abbot all through the 60s and 70s at St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts. This area is thick with religious retreat centres, including the well-known Theravada Buddhist centre, Insight Meditation Society. Fr. Keating tells of meeting many young people, some who stumbled on St. Joseph's by accident, many of them born Catholic, who had turned to Eastern practices for contemplative work. He found many of them had no knowledge of the contemplative traditions within Christianity and set out to present those practices in a more accessible way. The result was the practice now called Centering Prayer.[12]

Critics note that traditional prayers such as the Holy Rosary and Lectio Divina engage the heart and mind with Sacred Scripture, while Centering Prayer is "devoid of content".[17] The Holy Rosary and Lectio Divina, in contrast, have some contemplative goal in mind: with the Rosary, the Mysteries of the Rosary are contemplated; with Lectio Divina, the practitioner thinks about the Scripture reading, sometimes even visualizing it.

Critics also dispute the claim that Centering Prayer is in the tradition of the Desert Fathers and Carmelite saints, saying that traditional Catholic contemplative prayer is not so much a method of prayer as a stage of prayer in which God's action predominates.[17] They cite the Catechism of the Catholic Church as evidence that meditation and contemplation are two different expressions of prayer.[18]

In 1989, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, led by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) issued Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on Some Aspects of Christian Meditation.[19] The letter addresses problematic elements found in some modern prayer methods, many of which have been influenced by Eastern religions and the New Age movement. Contemplative Outreach, which was founded by Fr. Keating and others to promote Centering Prayer, denies that this letter applies to Centering Prayer and states that Centering Prayer is connected to the Holy Spirit.[20] Opponents of the method, however, point to similarities between the teaching of Fr. Keating and his colleagues and specific criticisms made by the CDF.[21][22]

In 2003, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the Pontifical Council for Culture published Jesus Christ, The Bearer of the Water of Life: A Christian Reflection on the "New Age".[23] Critics of Centering Prayer once again say their concerns were addressed in this document.[24] Centering Prayer practitioners respond that Bearer of the Water of Life does not have doctrinal authority, and neither Vatican document mentions Centering Prayer, Contemplative Outreach, or Fr. Keating by name.

Pope Francis has not commented on Centering Prayer directly but has spoken very highly of Thomas Merton. Thomas Merton described contemplative prayer as prayer "centered entirely on the presence of God." [2] Pope Francis listed Thomas Merton as one of four great Americans in a speech before the U.S. Congress in September 2015 and encouraged sowing dialogue and peace in "the contemplative style of Thomas Merton." [25]