Click Here to Listen
By Rev. Peter Traben Haas
© 2010 www.ContemplativeChristians.com. All Rights Reserved.
Misperception #2: Centering Prayer is not biblical.
Centering Prayer is as biblical as you want it to be. While the exact words “Centering Prayer” do not appear anywhere in the Hebrew or Christian Scriptures, the motivation and purpose of Centering Prayer do. For example, “be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46.10) and “abide in me as I abide in you” (John 15.4).
Just because the method of Centering Prayer is neither explicitly outlined in the Bible nor taught by Jesus does not automatically disqualify it as a legitimate spiritual practice for Christian formation. If a step by step biblical description is needed to legitimate everything Christians do or believe, we would need to cease using the word Trinity, a word not explicitly found in the Bible. Just because the Bible does not speak of a particular word or spiritual practice, does not make it inappropriate. If that were the case, the doctrines of the Trinity and Eucharist would both be far less clear than they are today due to the method of theological correlation and analogy developed over time through spiritual conversation and ecumenical councils. Furthermore, the Bible does not speak of a great many important things which we now take for granted and value very highly, such as DNA, the expanding universe, treatments for cancer, and most importantly as it relates to Centering Prayer, the existence of the unconscious.
Remember, Jesus said that his disciples could not “bear all that he had to teach” (John 16.12) them, but that the Holy Spirit would come after his ascension and continue the teaching he began by leading the church “into all truth” (John 16.13). This means that there is a mechanism in place that allows for the developmental unfolding of knowledge and practice. Remember, it took nearly four hundred years after Jesus’ ascension for the church to generally agree upon the nature of Jesus’ relationship to the Father (at both the Council of Nicaea 325 C.E. and Chalcedon 451 C.E.). They called it the Hypostatic Union; a key element to the doctrine of the Trinity. But did Jesus speak of himself using this word? Absolutely not. He hinted at it in other ways (i.e. John 10.30).
Christian knowledge and practice is developmental. Grounded in the historical events of the Incarnation and the earliest Christian experiences with and reflections about Jesus, Christian theologians and leaders have tirelessly sought to integrate faith and practice and verify experience with Scripture. There is not a universally accepted formula to do this. It requires listening. Discernment. Intuition. Wisdom. It is a developmental and relational process, meaning that it emerges from the known into the unknown as led by the Spirit. The Scriptures and Tradition teach us that which has been revealed and received. Yet, we do not know what will be. It is the Spirit of Truth who leads us forward bringing about God’s intended destiny for us and the cosmos. This requires trust and faith. For some, the lack of control over the process prompts fear – which only hinders one’s present and future flourishing in Christ.
In the light of the modern discoveries of the unconsciousness, the expanding universe, the relationality of the quantum world, I believe that the Holy Spirit has been calling us to new dimensions of prayer. Dimensions intuited long ago by Christian mystics and insights that resonate with the ancient wisdom of the contemplative prayer practices. Are we listening to the insights? They are shedding new light on the gift of prayer and its extraordinary role in our future unfolding as a human species.
We are instructed to “test the spirits” (1 John 4.1). So, let us proceed to test the spirit of Centering Prayer. We will do so by using the method of theological analogy to reveal the endless connections between the Scriptures and the motivation and purpose of Centering Prayer, and in so doing, reveal the thoroughly biblical foundation for this good, true and beautiful gift of the Spirit for an age in transition.
Motivation (The Why – answering the question, “for what reason?”)
The motivation to practice Centering Prayer is grounded in the reality that human beings are created in the image of God (Genesis 1.26). The breath of God brought us into being (Genesis 2.7) and since then we are ontologically connected with God and long for the fullness of reunion. Thus, the Spirit bears witness to our spirit, as Like calls to like. (Romans 8.5-16). The longing for the fullness of reunion becomes all the more acute when we are united with Christ through faith by the Spirit, for in Christ, nothing can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8.39), and in Centering Prayer we remember and experience this truth again and again.
Centering Prayer is motivated by the longing in the human soul for God (Psalm 42.1-3). The longing is a response to God’s call. It is as if we are hearing beautiful and mysterious music from a distant room. We know it is calling to us. We feel it in every cell. Sometimes we are distracted by the conversation nearby. Sometimes we ignore the music. But it is profoundly present, singing its octave of adoration, shouting its hymns of glory, booming its timpani’s of silent thunder. The music is sheer grace, drawing us to the reality of the truth which is love experienced through prayer. The experience of Centering Prayer is possible because of the grace of God flowing forth from the heart of the Trinity, one for another, and all for us.
This grace is true for all prayer practices. It is true for Centering Prayer all the more because the essence of our response to the call is total surrender. We surrender. We consent in silence to the presence and action of God. We cease trying to get to God with our intercessions and complaints. We say, yes to God’s Yes through the veil of silence. We are motivated not to find God in the center of our being, but to find our center in the depth of God’s love through Christ by the Spirit. Could there be anything more beautifully Christian than that?
Purpose (The Where it will take us – answering the question, “to what end?”)
The purpose of Centering Prayer is grounded in the reality that while we are created in the image of God, we are also “fallen.” To be fallen suggests we were actually created to live at a higher level. Thus, we are in need of healing, of transformation, yes, of salvation (understood as the healing of our human nature in Christ). We recognize that anyone who is in Christ is a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5.17), reconciled to God with whom we are now at peace (Romans 5.1). In addition to this new state of being with God through Christ, we are also invited into a deeper participation with Christ, indeed to participate in the “divine nature” (2 Peter 1.4). Traditionally, this is called the process of sanctification, and the goal of this journey of sanctification (purgation/illumination) is what the Western church calls “union” and the Eastern church calls “theosis,” and what I simply call “becoming love.”
The end of Centering Prayer is love. Not the love of our selves, not even the love of God or neighbor. But the transformation into love, for God is love (1 John 4.7-8) and we are children of God and heirs with Christ (Romans 8.12-17). Love is the God-intended destiny of the creation and Centering Prayer is simple, peasant-bread for our nourishment on this most holy and mysterious journey home.
Method (The How – answering the question “what is the means to get there?”).
The method of Centering Prayer is grounded in the reality that the disciples of Jesus asked him how to pray (Luke 11.1-2). Their question gives us permission to continue to ask, seek and knock for the fullness of an answer. We have been doing so ever since they first asked. In this most confusing era of human history, thanks to the tireless ministry of Father Thomas Keating, Father William Meninger, Basil Pennington and Contemplative Outreach, the method of Centering Prayer is widely known. These holy spiritual elders have released from the heart of their monastic experience a simple tool for all Christians.
The method of Centering Prayer is grounded upon one’s intention. We express our intention to love, surrender, consent, follow, trust, believe, hear, listen, taste, see, know…by sitting in silence and using a simple word to guard our heart and mind from its chatter and wandering. Intention. It is everything in the Christian journey. Intentional moments of surrender are modeled after the template of the Prodigal Son, who in a moment of intention “came to his senses” and returned home to father (Luke 15.11-32). It was a difficult journey home, and when he returned he discovered that his father had been waiting all along, probably sending out his own intention for the son’s return. Somehow, the intentions met like magnets and the miracle of return occurred. Intention is completely different than attention, and this distinction makes all the difference.
While the Lord’s Prayer provides a three-fold model for prayer (adoration, petition, contrition), it is not the end of prayer. Word based discursive prayer like the Lord’s Prayer over time, leads one to a deeper awareness of prayer beyond words to simply being with God (Psalm 46.10). John of the Cross summarized all the different kinds of prayer into two categories: discursive and contemplative. Development or progress in prayer is often characterized by the slow transformation of our wordy prayers into silence. We simply rest before God’s I Am-ness, consenting with the wordless intention, Abba, “here I am” (Exodus 3.4; Isaiah 6.9) or with Mary, “let it be in me according to thy word” (Luke 1.38).
The Word of God is the living presence of Christ conveyed by the Spirit through scripture, sacrament, nature and silence. What was the Word of God who became flesh doing alone at night in prayer? Was the Word of God as the Eternal Word of God using words? What word would need to be spoken by the One Eternal Word that is all words? Ignatius, 2nd Century church father, said it best: silence was God’s first word. The method of Centering Prayer rests upon such ancient wisdom.
To be continued…
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