Hello and welcome to Methods,
An exploration in guided prayer and meditation.
My name is Rich Lewis and I practice a form of silent prayer called Entering Prayer.
Entering Prayer is a practice that opens one to contemplative prayer.
I teach Centering Prayer in both my local community and virtual community.
I offer one-on-one Centering Prayer coaching for those new to Centering Prayer and for those who wish to go deeper in their existing practice.
My site,
Stylisteaches.
Com,
Is devoted to Centering Prayer and offers a free Centering Prayer ebook to those who subscribe to receive my weekly meditation,
Frequent book reviews,
And interviews with other contemplative authors and contemplative people.
The theory behind Centering Prayer is really based upon the scripture Matthew 6.
6,
When you pray,
Go to your inner room,
Close the door.
Centering Prayer is a practice that opens us to the gift of contemplative prayer.
And during contemplative prayer,
We sit with God.
We open our mind,
Heart,
And body to God who is beyond thoughts,
Words,
And emotions.
Contemplative prayer is like when we sit with a lover or a friend.
No words need to be said.
Centering Prayer does not replace other forms of prayer.
It complements them.
It is both a relationship with God and a discipline to foster our relationship with God.
Centering Prayer itself was discovered by Father William Manager in 1974 in a 14th century book called The Cloud of Unknowing,
Where he discovered the method of Centering Prayer.
He then quickly began to teach this Centering Prayer according to the Cloud of Unknowing to people in the area and created workshops with himself and Thomas Keating and Basil Pennington,
Who then really began to kind of refine the process.
Ten years later,
1984,
Thomas Keating created the Contemplative Outreach Organization,
Which really is an international organization for Centering Prayer.
Now,
Centering Prayer itself is four simple steps.
Step one,
Select a sacred word as the symbol of your intention to open yourself to God's presence and action within.
Step two,
Sit comfortably,
Close your eyes,
And internally repeat the sacred word slowly and intently.
Step three,
When you become aware of thoughts,
Emotions,
And physical sensations,
Return ever so gently to your sacred word.
So you're really doing this throughout the entire time of your Centering Prayer sit.
And I do want to point out,
If you have a bad back or a bad neck,
By all means,
Please lie down if that's what you need to do and you can't sit upright.
And also if you are more of a visual person instead of using a word,
And the word you would choose usually is one,
Two,
Or three syllables,
If you're more of a visual person,
Use an image.
I use a Jesus icon,
For example,
Because I'm more of a visual person.
Some people will also use their breath.
And lastly,
I'll mention some people will practice with their eyes opened and stare at a spot straight ahead because they're fearful that they'll fall asleep.
So you're essentially doing these three steps using your sacred word or image or breath to come back to the present moment and open to the presence and actions of God within.
And you're doing this whenever you need to,
Whenever you have a thought or emotion,
When you're planning your day out and you realize,
No,
The purpose of my Centering Prayer sit is to sit with God,
It's not to plan out my day.
And then at the end of your period,
You can remain in silence for a minute or two,
And then get up and resume with your day.
So that's the practice of Centering Prayer itself.
As I said,
It's four simple steps,
But obviously Centering Prayer is not so simple to sit in silence,
But those are the four steps.
So we'll now take a minute to do a one minute silence step to give you a feel for it.
Now,
As you come out of your Centering Prayer sit,
There's a couple of things you can do.
You can put some structure around your Centering Prayer,
I like to call them Centering Prayer bookends.
So before I begin a silent prayer,
I usually,
I have,
This is my routine,
Some people like to read,
For example,
And then read for five minutes or read some scripture or read something from their favorite book and then begin their Centering Prayer step.
I have kind of mantras that are important to me,
Things that I want to do for my life,
Things that I want to do with my family.
And I'll kind of read them and bring these into my Centering Prayer sit and let them go to God and then begin my sit.
And then at the tail end,
You can have a bookend.
I usually read when I'm done.
So I go into my Centering Prayer sit,
I'll call them with mantras,
Do my Centering Prayer sit.
And then at the end of my Centering Prayer sit,
I like to read from my favorite book that I'm reading at the present time for five minutes or so.
And then I get up and begin my day.
So it's kind of nice sometimes to have some type of bookend and that can be whatever works best for you.
And then I'll mention for many extended silence is very difficult.
Don't become discouraged.
Start small,
Take baby steps.
Perhaps initially you will only be able to handle one minute,
Two minutes,
Five minutes.
Gradually increase the timeframe of your session to 15 or 20 minutes.
And then I think it's important to add a second sit at some point later in the day.
It just refills the interior reservoir and keeps you open to God and open to life 24 7.
I'll call it.
And I encourage you to find a local Centering Prayer group.
So if you look on the contemplative outreach site,
They're nationwide and you can find the state you're in and you might actually find the local Centering Prayer group near you that meets and they'd be happy to have you join them for their weekly practice.
And I've done that a couple of times as well with groups that are near me.
So those are the steps of Centering Prayer.
And those are some kind of next steps for beginners,
I would say to take to this wonderful practice that's been so life-giving to me.
And I simply want to share it with others that want to learn more and see if it's something that would be helpful in its interest to them.
Thank you for participating in the episode,
This episode of Methods.
For more content,
Visit www.
Methodspodcast.
Com.
If you want to learn more about me and my Centering Prayer work,
Feel free to visit me at www.
Silenceteaches.
Com.
