Reflections on the Centering Prayer Retreat, June 7-16

Usually the words "Centering Prayer" and "Intensive" don't go together, in my mind. But the "10-Day Intensive Centering Prayer Retreat" at Snowmass CO is correctly named! It was a very intense experience. In my previous post, I have given you the schedule for the retreat. I actually got up most days at 4:00am, not 4:40am, because I was staying at the gate house about 3/4 of a mile from the main retreat house. I was in the gate house with two women from Ireland. We hiked up the gravel road every morning in the 30 degree weather (it is a lot colder in Colorado at this time of year), got a cup of coffee, sat for a bit, and then joined the others, 21 of us altogether, for the first "sit" of the day. As you can see from the schedule, we would pray for 20 minutes and then do a meditative walk and then pray again for 20 minutes, walk, and then the final 20 minutes. We had three one-hour prayer periods a day. Having the structure and support to pray this way was a great experience for me. I have always enjoyed and gotten a lot from this sort of prayer, but I had never done so much of it at one time before this retreat.

The basic method of Centering Prayer is as follows: choose a word to be your "sacred word" and as you settle down to begin the prayer, bring that word to mind. The "sacred word" is sacred simply because it signals your openness to connect with God on this deep level. The meaning word itself is not really important. The word leads you into the silence. As we center, it is natural for thoughts to come into our minds, and when that happens, we are supposed to return to the sacred word as a way back to total focus on God...a focus that has no words or thoughts, just a "being" in the presence of God. One of the things I learned on the retreat was that the thoughts that come are not to be resisted, but we are to simply let go of the thoughts. And that letting go of the thoughts in the prayer can make it more possible to let go of thoughts and feelings as they arise in our daily lives. For me that means being able to hold issues more loosely, not being as "gripped" by something but just give it to God.

As part of the retreat, we also had DVD presentations by Fr. Thomas Keating on what might be called the practical benefits of Centering Prayer. He has based his teaching on the Spiritual Journey on the ways that Centering Prayer helps us become more fully the persons God has created us to be by letting go of the "emotional programs" for happiness that we learned as children as the result of not getting what we needed or wanted as children. Keating's main teaching on this topic can be found in his book, Open Mind, Open Heart: The Contemplative Dimension of the Gospel, which I plan to read with you as one of the Rector's Read books in the Fall. All that we do as the church, all of our spiritual practices, are means by which God transforms us. Because Keating has put such religious truth in psychological terms, I think some people might be more able to understand what such transformation can look like. On the last full day of our retreat, we had the privilege of meeting Fr. Keating and asking him questions. I asked him to reflect on the relationship of the sacraments, especially Holy Communion, to Centering Prayer. He said that the sacraments and Centering Prayer are all leading to the same end and that they complement each other (the end being close personal relationship with God).

I benefited personally and professionally in many ways from this retreat. It was a special experience. In addition to the two women from Ireland, who were my housemates, there was a man from Australia, and people from all over the US including Alaska. We enjoyed a wonderful retreat facility and a retreat staff who in addition to leading our prayer periods, cooked all of our meals, and attended to any needs we had. They were really great. I recommend this retreat highly. It was a fantastic way to start my sabbatical.