Centering Prayer
Welcome to St. John’s Episcopal Church Centering Prayer Page.
A variety of Centering Prayer-related in-person and online events are available, and open to all.
If you are new to Centering Prayer and/or St. John’s, we recommend you read this page and speak to someone who is experienced with Centering Prayer to get the most out of the experience.
To request a Zoom chat or phone call with a practitioner, please click the button below.
About Centering Prayer
Centering Prayer has deep roots in the history of Christian Spirituality. It involves sitting silently, with the intention to open one’s heart and mind to the presence of God, both within and without. Centering Prayer adds depth to all prayer and facilitates the movement from more active modes into a receptive silence and stillness: what the late Father Thomas Keating called “resting in God.”
Centering Prayer emphasizes prayer as a personal relationship with God, through Christ, in the Holy Spirit, moving beyond conversation to communion, a communion that includes other people and the world around us. It is aligned with the psalmist’s teaching of “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10)
After a brief instruction to guide us into the practice, we sit together in silence and stillness for one half-hour. Beginners to the practice, as well as experienced practitioners of all kinds of meditation, are encouraged to attend.
The Center for Contemplative Outreach states, “Centering Prayer emphasizes prayer as a personal relationship with God and as a movement beyond conversation with Christ to communion with Him.”
Schedule
We have come to realize that Zoom-only Centering Prayer works very well, and so does In-person, but the hybrid model places undue pressure on those setting up the in-person service and detracts from the experience. Furthermore, some folks do not want to participate with a computer present. We also have folks attending who do not live in the area or who are not comfortable yet meditating in-person due to Covid concerns. Happily, we believe we have a solution that will work for everyone.
The new schedule and format change are effective next week and are as follows.
Tuesday Centering Prayer at 5 PM (in-person only)
Wednesday Centering Prayer at 9:30 AM (In-person only)
Thursday Centering Prayer at 7 AM (Zoom only)
The new Thursday Centering Prayer early service time was selected in part to provide working folks a chance to participate.
We hope and pray that these changes will be helpful and make it possible for more folks to participate.
Tuesday Centering Prayer at 5:00 PM PST - In-Person Only
Join us in the Sanctuary.
Wednesday Centering Prayer at 9:30 AM PST - In-Person Only
Join us in the Sanctuary.
Thursday Centering Prayer at 7:00 AM PST - Zoom only
Please join the meeting at the time indicated, and turn video and audio on.
To turn on audio, click on Join Audio and then click on Join Audio by Computer.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89455275538
Meeting ID: 894 5527 5538
Please note, if you are joining Centering Prayer remotely you will need a password to access the sessions. To sign-up for Centering Prayer online please click here >>
Resources
Centering Prayer is the prayer of the body, the breath, and one Word that empties the self into the fullness of reality beyond words. To ripen in prayer, we must do more than read about it. Nevertheless, dialogue with mature contemplatives through their writings, recordings, and especially by being with them on retreat, supports our commitment to daily practice and helps it bear fruit. Study trains us to see our interior prayer as one with the larger outpouring of the Spirit as active love in the world, awakening our hearts to an integral vision of Christ’s ongoing work.
This vision interprets insights and intuitions flowing from Centering Prayer, not only in the light of the church’s storehouse of scripture and tradition, but also drawing on new treasures: developmental psychology; quantum physics and cosmology, evolutionary biology, and ecology; poetry and the arts, folklore, and myth; and non-Christian wisdom traditions. Here are a few resources we have found particularly illuminating and helpful:
Open Mind, Open Heart 20th Anniversary Edition - Thomas Keating. Written by an acknowledged spiritual master, the book moves beyond "discursive meditation and particular acts to the intuitive level of contemplation." Keating gives an overview of the history of contemplative prayer in the Christian tradition, and step-by-step guidance in the method of centering prayer.
Invitation to Love - Thomas Keating. In this book, Thomas Keating breaks down all the elements of bringing ourselves closer to the loving heart of God. Additionally, it breaks down some of the psychological stages of individual growth and then compares them to spirituality.
Contemplating Christ: The Gospels and the Interior Life - Vincent Pizzuto. Bay Area New Testament scholar and Episcopal Priest Vincent Pizzuto delves deeply into biblical sources and the Christian mystical tradition to describe the path of contemplative practice and personal transformation in fresh, contemporary terms.
A Rising Tide of Silence - A documentary about the contemplative religious movement and centered prayer practice, focusing on one of its pioneer practitioners. Available on Amazon, Youtube, and other places where movies can be rented online.
Abandonment to Divine Providence - Jean-Pierre de Caussade, translated by John Beevers. Contained within this volume is the first part of "Abandonment to Divine Providence" by Jean-Pierre de Caussade, a treatise on the practice of total abandonment to Divine Providence, or in other words, completely giving yourself over to God's will. A spiritual classic, "Abandonment to Divine Providence" will delight readers of all faiths as they discover the spiritual guidance that this volume has to offer.
The New Creation in Christ, Christian Meditation and Community - Bede Griffiths. This book is written in a peaceful language implicitly inviting the reader to practice some type of meditation. The aim is that even in cases of great suffering, one will have the opportunity to find peace deep within oneself.
Living Buddha, Living Christ 20th Anniversary Edition - Thich Nhat Hanh. Nominated by Martin Luther King, Jr. for a Nobel Peace Prize, Thich Nhat Hanh is one of today's leading sources of wisdom, peace, compassion, and comfort. ... In lucid, meditative prose, he explores the crossroads of compassion and holiness at which the two traditions meet, and he reawakens our understanding of both.