Thus it consists of listening to the silence. One is free in both methods to choose which practice works best or to which one feels attracted by grace. Centering Prayer does this by letting all thoughts come and go, like boats floating downstream.
One returns to the sacred word only when one needs to, as when one realizes one is thinking of something. Beginners may prefer the mantric practice since their minds are easily distracted from the simple intention the sacred word represents.
Others may find the uninterrupted repetition too concentrative. That seems to be the difference in methods; one is totally receptive, the other is totally concentrative. Whether this is a substantial difference or simple a difference of emphasis depends on your point of view.
The details vary. The Contemplative Society focuses on Centering Prayer, a surrender method of meditation, or contemplative prayer, that reaches back to the early days of Christianity. Use a chair, meditation cushion or prayer rug, according to your own physical needs and preferences. This is a word or short phrase that helps you to let go of thoughts. It is a reminder of your intention to remain open to the silence.
Sacred words are not used as mantras, as in constantly repeating them, but as a reminder of your intention to remain open. At the end of the time get up and go about your business, leaving the practice behind, in the same way you let go of your thoughts. Then after a few days extend the time to 10 minutes and so on until you are able to sit for 20 minutes.
Give the practice at least 2 weeks before you decide if it is right for you. She did not understand them, and some spiritual directors cautioned her against them. Here she speaks of the results of this exercise:.
For previously I had thought that, if I was to receive favours in prayer, I must go apart by myself a great deal, and so I had hardly dared to stir. Then I began to see how little this had to do with it; the more I tried to think of other things, the more completely the Lord enveloped me in that sweetness and glory until I felt so completely surrounded by it that I could not flee from it in any direction; and thus matters continued. She was unable to resist, try as she might.
All attempts to ignore God were futile. When God communicates with us through locutions or visions, we can try to ignore them and set them aside. Teresa says we will not truly be able to do so. And union with God itself is as impossible to resist as it is to produce. It is outside human control. Is Centering Prayer Catholic? The paperback is also for sale at other online retailers.
London: Bloomsbury, , 2. Following Teresa, Carmelites usually call it acquired recollection. Teresa of Avila, Life, E. Cover of Is Centering Prayer Catholic? Skip to content. For prayer and virtue cannot be separated. Piercing the truths of our faith through reflection on the mysteries of Creation, the Incarnation, and Redemption open us to interior devotion and a longing and yearning for God.
When faith enlightens the mind worldly things begin to lose their hold on us. However, in meditation the method used is intended to lead to a prayer beyond all methods, that is contemplative prayer. Contemplation is often a misunderstood word. It is not a prayer that we can initiate or cause to happen.
It is divinely produced and no amount of action on our part can produce or prolong it. This is the Second Water in which we still use a bucket but the labor is less intensified since the water comes through an aqueduct and the use of a water wheel. The action here belongs to the Holy Spirit and the work we do is only to dispose ourselves to receive the graces God is giving us.
We have entered into a wordless prayer, an awareness of the Divine Guest within, not through the use of the intellect but through a knowing loving, a deep communion with the Triune God.
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