The Path of Centering Prayer: Deepening Your Experience of God

In the teachings of Jesus, there are prayers, and then there is prayerthe silent, loving communion with the divine, beyond words or ritual. With Father Thomas Keatings book Open Mind, Open Heart, hundreds of thousands discovered the transformative power of Centering Prayer as a form of Christian meditation. Now, with The Path of Centering Prayer, Keatings senior student, friend, and advisor David Frenette reveals the profound depths of this practice, making it easier for meditators to deepen their connection with God.Beginning and experienced practitioners alike will benefit from this fresh voice, at once eloquent and clear, as they explore:The key insights and principles of Centering Prayer Guided instruction in the sacred word, sacred breath, and sacred glance practices Gentleness and openness: the way of letting go and letting be Experiencing a deeper sense of God in meditation and in everyday life Many other contemplative practices and teachings founded upon the wisdom of Fathers Thomas Keating and Thomas MertonHas your spiritual path grown routine or unfulfilling, or is it at a crossroads for new discovery? For all Christians who seek to move closer into the presence of the divine, The Path of Centering Prayer offers guidance in this rewarding and timehonored meditation practice, to help break through obstacles and illuminate the way.David Frenette is a leader and senior teacher in the Centering Prayer movement, and a friend and advisor of Father Thomas Keating for 30 years. He cocreated and coled a contemplative retreat community for 10 years, has an MA in transpersonal counseling psychology, and is an adjunct faculty member of Naropa University. He is a spiritual director at the Center for Contemplative Living in Denver, Colorado, as well as for clients worldwide.ContentsPart I: Deepening Your Centering Prayer Practice in the Light of ContemplationChapter One: Understanding Christian Contemplation and Getting Started in Centering PrayerChapter Two: Renewing Your Practice of Centering PrayerChapter Three: Deepening the Sacred WordChapter Four: Deepening the Sacred BreathChapter Five: Deepening the Sacred GlanceChapter Six: Nothing buy Gods Silence, Stillness, and SpaciousnessChapter Seven: The Sacred Nothingness and the TrinityChapter Eight: Dancing in the Center of GodPart II: Contemplative AttitudesChapter Nine: Consent and Giving God Consent to Act in YouChapter Ten: Opening and RecognizingChapter Eleven: Simplicity and Awakening in GodChapter Twelve: Gentleness and EffortlessnessChapter Thirteen: Letting Go and Letting BeChapter Fourteen: Resting and BeingChapter Fifteen: Embracing and Being EmbracedChapter Sixteen: Integrating in Life and Emerging in GodExcerptThis book is a complete handbook to Christian contemplation and the practice of centering prayer. A contemplative practice like centering prayer opens you to experiencing God. This book shows you how to journey on the path of centering prayer, a path leading to interior union with Christ and increasing unity with all of life as it is found emerging in God. Although designed to show advanced practitioners how to deepen their centering prayer practice, The Path of Centering Prayer can also be used by beginners looking to establish such a practice.Christian Contemplative Practice and Centering PrayerSimilar in many ways to meditation in other spiritual traditions, centering prayer is a method of silent, wordless prayer that comes out of the Christian contemplative tradition. Different contemplative practices have always existed in Christianity. Practices like the Jesus Prayer in the Orthodox Christian tradition, lectio diviathe divine reading of scripturein the Roman Catholic tradition, and the silent worship of some Quaker and Protestant churcheshave provided means for experiencing the contemplative dimension of the Gospel. The practice of centering prayer is primarily based on the teaching of a classic spiritual te