A Day of Centering Prayer

November 7, 10 AM – 2 PM

A one-day workshop on Centering Prayer with Sr. Peggy

For over forty years now, the following four guidelines have successfully introduced tens of thousands of people worldwide to Centering Prayer:

1. Choose a sacred word as the symbol of your intention to consent to God’s presence and action within.
2. Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed, settle briefly and silently introduce the sacred word as the symbol of your consent to God’s presence and action within.
3. When engaged with your thoughts [including body sensations, feelings, images, and reflections], return ever-so-gently to the sacred word.
4. At the end of the prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed for a couple of minutes. [1]

Father Thomas Keating suggests praying for twenty minutes twice a day.

Are we saying that in Centering Prayer, you meditate by simply letting go of one thought after another? That can certainly be our subjective experience of the practice, and this is exactly the frustration expressed by an early practitioner. In one of the very earliest training workshops led by Keating himself, a nun tried out her first twenty-minute taste of Centering Prayer and then lamented, “Oh, Father Thomas, I’m such a failure at this prayer. In twenty minutes, I’ve had ten thousand thoughts!”

“How lovely,” responded Keating, without missing a beat. “Ten thousand opportunities to return to God.”

Lunch is included in this one-day workshop, where you will have a session to sit in contemplation

_______________

Welcome to Holy Mountain Franciscan Retreat Center

Address for GPS: 40 Franciscan Way, Garrison (Philipstown), NY 10524