Centering Prayer - A simple method with deep results...

Centering Prayer is a receptive, deep 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.

Method of Centering Prayer brochure.

Contemplative Outreach Northwest

Reservation Open
5 Day (4 Night) Silent Centering Prayer Post-Intensive Retreat
Monday, March 16, 2026 (4:00 PM) to Friday, March 20, 2026 (1:00 PM)
St. Andrew’s Retreat House at Sacred Waters, Union, Washington

Information and Registration

A Podcast Review and Recommendation from Contemplative Outreach Chicago
Opening Minds, Opening Hearts

by Jack Lloyd

Are you listening? The current season of Contemplative Outreach Ltd.’s podcast – Opening Minds, Opening Hearts - is definitely worth your attention. This third season of the podcast embraces guests from various spiritual traditions, honoring Thomas Keating‘s important legacy of hosting interspiritual dialogues.

Eleven episodes include conversations with a wonderful range of guests, including Cynthia Bourgeault, Mirabai Starr, James Finley, Addul Rehman Malik, and Yuria Celidwen. As listeners, we have a rare chance to explore and learn about contemplative prayer from each guest’s unique perspective.

Our guides are podcast hosts Colleen Thomas and Mark Dannenfelser. One thing I especially like about Opening Minds, Opening Hearts is the way they invite their guests to share their knowledge and wisdom with limited interruption, yet always seem to ask just the right question at just the right moment - clarifying and deepening the ideas being discussed. Colleen, who serves as Contemplative Outreach’s Diversity Outreach Coordinator, is an ordained minister, spiritual director, and writer, while Mark, formerly program director at CO, is the founder and leader of the Mindfulness Center of Atlanta.

If you missed the first two seasons of Opening Minds, Opening Hearts, you can still catch up on them as well – all three seasons are available on the Contemplative Outreach Ltd, website as well as on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and other streaming platforms. Have a listen!

Peace & Spirituality Center
A ministry of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace

The Puget Sound Contemplative Outreach's home for in-person retreats has been the Peace and Spirituality Center in Bellevue.

You may know that there are prayer cards available throughout the Peace & Spirituality Center for guests to write their intentions. These cards are then posted on the board next to the Chapel and gathered into the community prayer each week.

They are now expanding this program to include an online option. A button to share prayers is displayed prominently on their home page of their website, allowing people who are not able to visit the Center in person to submit their prayers virtually. The intentions will be printed and added to the same board by the Chapel so that they are held together with those written on-site. There hope is that more people will feel connected to their community of prayer and ensures that on one who reaches out feels alone in their intentions.

For more information go to Share Your Prayer

Online Event Opportunities

Contemplative Outreach Chapters across the country are offering online opportunities. See a list of some of them here.

 

 

FEATURED PRODUCT

Thomas Keating: The Secret Embrace

Fr. Thomas Keating wanted to include a poem he had written in the next printing of Peter Jones' other book, From the Mind to the Heart. Peter encouraged his Uncle Thomas to submit more poems, and from that request, seven additional poems are the centerpiece of this beautifully-designed book.

What emerges from the core of Fr. Thomas's thinking is an alternate way of articulating high spiritual concepts inside short interconnected verses that provide an ambience in which to absorb them. Charlotte Frieze, author and artist, has contributed her watercolor paintings depicting the sea, forever in a state of transformation and transcendence.

 

Oneness, The Secret Embrace - Thomas Keating's Poetry, with Cynthia Bourgeault

Over three Zoom calls that were held April 30 - May 2, 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, sponsored by Contemplative Outreach of South Africa and Contemplative Outreach International, with support from The Trust for the Meditation Process. Cynthia deftly and gracefully presents an evolved view of the being and theology of Fr. Thomas through a review of eight poems from the book, The Secret Embrace.

The video recordings of these Zoom calls are now public on the Contemplative Outreach Youtube channel for all to enjoy. Please feel free to share.

Session 1:  https://youtu.be/HLQYx9sZHMY
Session 2:  https://youtu.be/EY0WpDgdAnM
Session 3:  https://youtu.be/zffJMQzlcn4.

These videos have a pause for Centering Prayer, where more than 2,000 people prayed in silence together from over 59 countries, the largest gathering of the worldwide community to date

What we're reading

The Universal Christ by Richard Rohr
Reviewed by Jeff Renner
I firmly believe that future generations will look back at Richard Rohr as ours considers such thinkers and writers as Karl Rahner, Karl Barth, Thomas Merton and Thomas Keating who wrote and spoke during the twentieth century. Each has been highly influential on the subject of authentic Christian faith, each has been and continues to be controversial and each continues to challenge us as to what it means to live a truly Christ-centered life.
At a time when faith and identification in formal religious communities continues to decline, Rohr’s book returns us to the essential issue of what is the nature of Jesus’ full identity and in particular, what does that mean for each of us? What does it demand of us? From the first chapter, Rohr call us to question our most basic assumptions-for example, is Christ simply Jesus’ last name, or a word for the originating template through which “all things came into being, and not one thing had its being except through him” (John 1:3). As G.K. Chesterton once wrote, “Your religion is not the. church you belong to, but the cosmos you live inside of”.  Father Rohr continues that the true essence of that cosmos is that “Christ is everywhere. In Him every kind of life has a meaning and a solid connection”, and “Christ is God and Jesus is the Christ’s historical manifestation in time. Jesus is a Third Someone, not just God and not just man, but God and human together"
This is not a book to be read casually, nor to put away after one reading. I’ve read my copy twice, and it remains on my side table for reference. It is best read in the manner of lectio divine-read a section, then consider what word or phrase engages you, how you are called to reflect on its message, perhaps a prayer you are called to offer and finally, to simply sit with it in silence. At the conclusion, Rohr offers two practices to deepen your faith, your living of that faith and your being that faith. And that is simply the beginning…or it should be.

 

What we're watching

Heartfulness 23: The Energy of Anger and the Energy of Sex

This is part of a weekly series of newly released outtakes from Fr. Thomas Keating's 2009 series with Betty Sue Flowers, "Heartfulness."

 

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Chapter Events

United in Spirit Interfaith Retreat
Saturday March 14, 2026
St. Mary on the Lake Peace & Spirituality Center, Bellevue</span

More information and to register

 

Zoom Prayer Groups

Bellingham
Wednesday's - 4:30pm with meditative music 4:15pm
On Zoom
Contacts: Fran Perry
360-734-0141

fransmail8@gmail.com
Mary McMahon
206-551-2336
marym344@comcast.net

The Episcopal Church in Western Washington
Welcoming Prayer
Thursday at 12:30 PM PDT
More information and meeting link

Centering Prayer
Thursday at 1:00 PM PDT
More information and meeting link
Contact: Sylvia Sepulveda
ssepulveda@ecww.org

 

Other Contemplative Outreach Online Events

Click here for a list of online events.

 

Tuesday with Merton

A webinar series presented by the International Thomas Merton Society and the Center for Spirituality at St. Mary’s College in Notre Dame on the second Tuesday of each month. Free and open to the public. Registration required.

Upcoming Tuesday with Merton.  

John Dickerson. Annual Fourth and Walnut Lecture. March 17, 2026 - 7 pm EST.
Virtual and in-person at Bellarmine University.

 

Challenge 2.0 by Paths to Understanding

Challenge 2.0 by Paths to Understanding, is a multi-faith, current affairs talk show and is hosted by our chapter coordinator, Jeff Renner. To find out more about Paths to Understanding and Challenge 2.0 go to https://pathstounderstanding.org/  Click here for a playlist of YouTube videos of Challenger2.0 shows.

Everyone Is Welcome

OUR MISSION IS HELPING PEOPLE FIND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

We’ve seen the transformation hundreds of times – people who came to us stressed, searching for something that's missing, or just called to silence and deeper prayer. The change may start slowly, but once it begins friends and family notice the difference. The good works, shared experiences, time spent in prayer – all bring us closer to our highest calling.

Join us for the first step toward that personal connection to God through silence, solitude, solidarity, and service!