Gathering: We have two Centering Prayer groups here at Sts. Simon & Jude.  Our Tuesday afternoon group meets from 4:00 -5:00 p.m. and our new evening groups meets from 7:00-8:00 p.m. on the 1st and 3rd Monday of each month in the Franciscan Room.  There is no experience needed.  A typical Tuesday gathering includes:

• Greetings
• Centering Prayer (silence, twenty minutes)
• Watching a tape or reading from a book by the spiritual masters
• Faith Sharing
• Intercessory Prayer

The contemplative life is an ancient Christian concept based on the spirituality of the scriptures.  We are all seekers, trying to find God in our lives and striving to make our life's journey one that is in a close relationship with the Being who creates us, sustains us, and loves us into redemption.  In its simplest expression, a contemplative life is living ordinary life with extraordinary love.  Centering prayer is one tool for creating a contemplative life.  It helps us deepen our awareness of God, even in the midst of our active lives.

To join or learn more about Centering Prayer at Sts. Simon & Jude Church, please email Trish Rice.

Resources

Websites:

• Contemplative Outreach - Contemplative Outreach and our prayer group facilitators are trained and certified by this organization.
• Thomas Keating Centering Prayer Guidelines Video

Books:

• Open Mind, Open Heart by Thomas Keating
• The Furious Longing of God by Brennan Manning
• The Loving Search for God by William Meninger
• Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle
• The Naked Now by Richard Rohr

Thoughts from Fr. Thomas Keating, founding member and the spiritual guide of Contemplative Outreach, LTD:

“Centering Prayer is a method of silent prayer that prepares us to receive the gift of contemplative prayer, prayer in which we experience God's presence within us, closer than breathing, closer than thinking, closer than consciousness itself. This method of prayer is both a relationship with God and a discipline to foster that relationship.

Centering Prayer is not meant to replace other kinds of prayer. Rather, it adds depth of meaning to all prayer and facilitates the movement from more active modes of prayer — verbal, mental or affective prayer — into a receptive prayer of resting in God. Centering Prayer emphasizes prayer as a personal relationship with God and as a movement beyond conversation with Christ to communion with Him.

The source of Centering Prayer, as in all methods leading to contemplative prayer, is the Indwelling Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The focus of Centering Prayer is the deepening of our relationship with the living Christ. The effects of Centering Prayer are ecclesial, as the prayer tends to build communities of faith and bond the members together in mutual friendship and love.”