The inner life
Centering Prayer
Direct answer
Centering Prayer: Centering prayer is a Christian method of silent prayer, shaped by Trappist monks in the 1970s, in which a single sacred word signals consent to God's presence.
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At a glance
- Also called
- sacred word prayer, centring prayer
- Found in
- Consciousness & Spiritual Psychology
- Related
- Contemplation, Lectio Divina, Hesychasm, Jesus Prayer
Centering prayer is a Christian method of silent prayer, shaped by Trappist monks in the 1970s, in which a single sacred word signals consent to God's presence.
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What is centering prayer?
The person sits, eyes closed, and silently introduces a short sacred word of their own choosing, such as Abba or peace. When they notice they are caught up in a thought, they return gently to the word. The usual counsel is twenty minutes, twice a day.
Centering Prayer’s teachers say the word is not a mantra to be repeated constantly; it is a sign of intention, used only when needed. They describe the method as preparation for contemplation, which they hold to be a gift and not something a technique produces.
On the tree of the hidden arts: Meditation.
What sets Centering Prayer apart
The sacred word is the distinctive part, and it is used in an unusual way. It is not repeated in rhythm, not attended to for its meaning, and may be dropped altogether when the mind is quiet. The guidelines ask the person neither to resist thoughts nor to hold on to them, only to come back to the word. The method's name is said to echo Thomas Merton, who wrote of prayer centred entirely on the presence of God.
- Developed: 1970s, St Joseph's Abbey, Spencer, Massachusetts
- Founders: William Meninger, Basil Pennington, Thomas Keating
- Chief source: The Cloud of Unknowing, anonymous, fourteenth century
- Suggested routine: twenty minutes, twice a day
- Organisation: Contemplative Outreach, founded 1984
Often mistaken for something else: The Jesus Prayer repeats a full invocation continuously; centering prayer uses one word, and only at the moments when attention has wandered.
The story behind Centering Prayer
Centering Prayer was developed in the 1970s at St Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts, by the Trappist monks William Meninger, Basil Pennington and Thomas Keating, who drew on the fourteenth-century English work The Cloud of Unknowing. Keating founded Contemplative Outreach in 1984 to teach it and set it out in Open Mind, Open Heart in 1986. Some Catholic critics judge it too close to Eastern techniques.
Why Centering Prayer matters
Centering Prayer shows that silent, objectless prayer has a home in Christianity, and gives lay people a simple form of what was long kept to monasteries.
How to read Centering Prayer
Parish groups and retreat houses teach it as a daily discipline, often paired with lectio divina, the slow reading of scripture.
Centering Prayer in practice: an example
A parishioner sits in the empty church before work, returns to the word mercy each time the day's list intrudes, and rises after twenty minutes.
Where readings of Centering Prayer go wrong
Centering Prayer is prayer addressed to God within Christian faith, and its own teachers warn against judging a session by how peaceful it felt.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Consciousness & Spiritual Psychology
- Aliases
- centering prayer method, what is centering prayer, Thomas Keating centering prayer, sacred word prayer, centring prayer
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
What is centering prayer?
A method of silent Christian prayer in which a person sits quietly and uses a chosen sacred word to return, whenever distracted, to the intention of resting in God's presence.
Who started centering prayer?
Three Trappist monks of St Joseph's Abbey in Massachusetts: William Meninger, Basil Pennington and Thomas Keating. They shaped it in the 1970s from older Christian sources, above all The Cloud of Unknowing.
Is centering prayer the same as meditation?
The method resembles mantra meditation, and critics have said so. Its teachers answer that the aim differs: the sacred word expresses consent to God and is not a tool for concentration.
