I tip toe very, very quietly into the lounge of Dunbar Ryerson United Church Memorial Centre on West 45th. Once again I am the late comer, but this time it is pretty obvious because the group I鈥檓 dropping in on is a group that practices a very, very quiet form of meditation called Centering Prayer.
To be fair, I鈥檓 joining in late because the first 20 minutes of the session is for participants to share their personal experiences in their faith practice, and not everyone is comfortable sharing with a curious reporter listening in.
Eight people are seated in chairs in a circle. Once I鈥檓 in my spot, Jan Miko, the facilitator for this group, reads a short passage from a book; then, as everyone closes their eyes, she hits 鈥減lay鈥� on the CD player next to her and the sound of a Gregorian chant fills the lounge for a few moments before fading away.
The room is totally silent.
Centering Prayer is both incredibly simple and incredibly difficult. The idea is to sit or 鈥渞est鈥� in God鈥檚 presence, or at least with the intention to be open to God鈥檚 presence. In the Christian tradition, you can鈥檛 will yourself to experience God鈥檚 presence since it is a gift, but you need to be open to it.
Father William Meninger, a Trappist monk at Spencer Abbey in Spencer, Mass., developed Centering Prayer in the 1970s.
Inspired by the 14th century text The Cloud of Unknowing, which is considered a classic of Christian mysticism, Meninger developed a simple method to 鈥渞est in God.鈥� He began teaching his method of meditative prayer to priests who came to Spencer Abbey on retreat.
Word of Centering Prayer quickly spread to lay people and, soon, two fellow monks named Thomas Keating and Basil Pennington began to offer classes for people outside the monastery.
Centering requires letting go of all the thoughts and feelings running around your head for 20 minutes and just being still. To help, you pick a 鈥渟acred word,鈥� a word that symbolizes your intention to be open to God.
Unlike a mantra, the sacred word is not repeated constantly. Instead you silently go back to the sacred word whenever thoughts come rolling by. It鈥檚 a touchstone that helps you remember what you鈥檙e doing so you can once again let the intrusive thoughts pass by without being swept off by the current.
It sounds far more poetic 鈥� and easy 鈥� than it is to actually let thoughts and feelings go by without engaging them. Ever counted how many thoughts you have in a minute? Multiply that by 20 and try to ignore them.
Yet something strange happens when sitting in this sacred silence: time seems to fall away.
As I鈥檓 sitting trying to shoo off thoughts of my to-do list, Miko taps a small singing bowl signaling the end of our prayer time. I was convinced we had only been sitting in silence for 10 minutes. It turns out we actually sat for 30 minutes due to a malfunction with the CD player.
Miko later tells me she has learned to see such unexpected road bumps as being 鈥渁ll in God鈥檚 hands.鈥� In her roughly five years of practicing Centering Prayer, she has found that 鈥渋t gradually erodes away at the sharp edges鈥� of one鈥檚 personal habits.听
But she didn鈥檛 take up Centering Prayer in order to relax.听
Miko attends Dunbar Ryerson and discovered this form of prayer shortly after retiring from her job as a school principal. She felt the need to dedicate more time to her spiritual life and attended an introductory Centering Prayer class offered at the church.
鈥淚 felt like, 鈥楾his is so perfect for me right now,鈥欌�� she says. After completing the six-week course, she began looking for a group to join, but fellow parishioners urged her to start her own group at Dunbar Ryerson.
She says her own practice of Centering Prayer has helped her be able to see the presence of the divine in everyday life and in other people. 鈥淚 come from a Baptist background, so that鈥檚 a lot of Bible reading and memorizing. [Centering Prayer] helps me see that I鈥檓 part of the story, the presence of the the holy is within me and around,鈥� she says.
Keating, the Trappist monk who started teaching Centering Prayer to lay people, has written several books on this form of prayer. He cautions against using it as your only form of prayer and encourages pairing it with the practice of 鈥淟ectio Divina鈥� 鈥� slow, purposeful reading of short passages from the Bible. Keating also recommends anyone seriously practicing Centering Prayer should have a spiritual director to talk over things that come up in prayer, and help understand what your heart is telling you, versus what you think your heart is telling you.
While Centering Prayer is ultimately a private practice 鈥� just you and God 鈥� Miko and others say having a community enriches the practice.
Judith Ann Donaldson is the coordinator of , a local group that provides resources and organizes Centering Prayer classes. She says there are 15 prayer groups i and an unknown number of people practicing on their own without a group.
Donaldson has been practicing Centering Prayer for 17 years. She has also noticed a new depth in her spiritual life. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 have such a dualistic way of seeing things [anymore]. I鈥檓 recognizing Christ in everything.鈥�
As the coordinator of the local Contemplative Outreach chapter, she enjoys going to different Centering Prayer groups and says part of the beauty of this way of praying is that 鈥渋t crosses all boundaries, it doesn鈥檛 matter what you are.鈥�
Although Centering Prayer was developed by Catholic monks, it can be practiced by any Christian 鈥� or even those who are not too sure what they are, as long as they are comfortable with Christianity.
As with anything a little bit different, not all Christians see Centering Prayer as a legitimate Christian prayer practice. Some believe it is a vaguely Christianized form of Zen meditation or even an occult practice. Donaldson points out that many opponents only understand prayer as an active pursuit.
Donaldson鈥檚 suggestion to anyone who feels drawn to the idea of Centering Prayer is simple: 鈥淭ry it.鈥�
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鈥� After graduating from Simon Fraser University with a degree in communication, Alicia moved to Rome, where she got an unexpected start covering religion. Stints in Toronto, Madrid and Toronto followed, culminating with her return home to the West Coast. Alicia has worked as a television producer and host, and is currently a freelance writer for Aleteia and Catholic News Service, as well as Leap of Faith, the Westender's blog on faith and spirituality in Vancouver.
