Click here for this week's sermon, by The Rev. Ann Fontaine.

Centering Prayer:
A method of prayer which prepares us to receive the gift of God's presence, traditionally called contemplative prayer.

It consists of responding to the Spirit of Christ by consenting to God's presence and action within. It furthers the development of contemplative prayer by quieting our faculties to cooperate with the gift of God's presence. Centering Prayer facilitates the movement from more active modes of prayer - verbal, mental or affective prayer - into a receptive prayer of resting in God. It emphasizes prayer as a personal relationship with God. At the same time, it is a discipline to foster and serve this relationship by a regular, daily practice of prayer. It is Trinitarian in its source, Christ-centered in its focus, and ecclesial in its effects; that is, it builds communities of faith. Centering Prayer is drawn from ancient prayer practices of the Christian contemplative heritage, notably the Fathers and Mothers of the Desert, Lectio Divina (praying the scriptures), The Cloud of Unknowing, St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila. It was distilled into a simple method of prayer in the 1970's by three Trappist monks, Fr. William Meninger, Fr. Basil Pennington and Abbot Thomas Keating at the Trappist Abbey, St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts.

Christian Contemplative Prayer:
The opening of mind and heart - our whole being - to God, the Ultimate Mystery, beyond thoughts, words and emotions, whom we know by faith is within us, closer than breathing, thinking, feeling and choosing; even closer than consciousness itself. The root of all prayer is interior silence. Though we think of prayer as thoughts or feelings expressed in words, this is only one expression. Contemplative Prayer is a prayer of silence, an experience of God's presence as the ground in which our being is rooted, the Source from whom our life emerges at every moment. For the Church's first sixteen centuries Contemplative Prayer was the goal of Christian spirituality. After the Reformation, this living tradition was virtually lost. Today, with cross-cultural dialogue and historical research, the recovery of the Christian contemplative heritage has begun. The method of Centering Prayer, in the tradition of Lectio Divina (praying the scriptures) is contributing to this renewal.

There is a section in the Johnson Library devoted specifically to Centering Prayer. Please stop by and check out the related literature if you are interested in learning more.

The ST. John's Centering Prayer Group:
Meets in the church on Tuesdays at 4:00 p.m. Most of the group comes a few minutes early in order to walk quietly around the aisles. Our program is simple: a short reading, a 20-minute "sit" (period of silent centering prayer), lectio divina (a reflective listening to a bible passage repeated three or four times), a period for expressing thoughts which may have arisen during the readings, and an ending prayer. After our session, which lasts about an hour, we will show videos in the adult education room which expand on the centering prayer process for those who are interested.

The group attempts to provide support for maintaining a regular daily prayer practice, answers to questions or concerns about the process, and expanding insight into our spiritual journeys. Because centering prayer prepares seekers for contemplative prayer which is a deeply personal experience of God, our group hopes to further the "contemplative" aspect of our church mission statement.

We are supported by Contemplative Outreach Ltd. which supplies books, audio tapes, and videos to groups like ours throughout the country and internationally.