Centering Prayer Saturday

Meet Pastor Jon Burnham in the church parking lot at 8:00 A.M. this Saturday, April 14, to ride the church van to the Centering Prayer workshop in Grenada. The cost is $15 and includes lunch.

All that is required of participants is the ability to sit upright in a chair. The format Saturday will include a lecture and some experience practicing the prayer. No one will be asked to respond to questions or tell about their faith journey or be embarrassed in any way.

If you make a commitment to this spiritual discipline and follow through, several years from now you will remember this Saturday as a turning point in your life. Call Jon for more information about centering prayer and about this workshop. Come learn the power of the Psalmist's injunction: "Be still and know that I am God."

Centering Prayer in Grenada

Dear church family and friends,

Last week I learned Rev. Tom Ward is leading a Centering Prayer Introductory Workshop in Grenada on the same day as our workshop here on April 14th. Rev. Ward is the Episcopal minister who led the 8-day centering prayer retreat I attended in January.

I talked to Rev. Lynn Baker, minister of All Saints Episcopal Church in Grenada, which is the host church of Rev. Ward's workshop. She would be delighted to have us join them.

Therefore, I encourage you to attend the centering prayer workshop in Grenada on April 14th from 9:00 A.M. until 3:00 P.M. The cost is only $15 for the workshop and a light lunch at All Saints Church. If there is enough interest, I will drive the church van to All Saints in Grenada, leaving at 8 AM on Saturday, April 14. Let me know by Wednesday, April 11, if you want to ride with me. I am looking forward to meeting new friends in Grenada on April 14th.

Take advantage of this terrific opportunity to be introduced to centering prayer by Rev. Tom Ward, a leader in the worldwide contemplative outreach ministry. In fact, Tom serves on the board of directors of Contemplative Outreach.

Centering prayer has made a real difference in my quality of life: Physical, spiritual, emotional and mental. I highly recommend it to you and to anyone else who is interested. This spritual discipline has transformed my life. Most of the people who practice centering prayer are lay people such as you. That is why I am so excited about this workshop and your opportunity to participate in it. Call me if you have questions.

Peace,

Dr. Jon Burnham, Pastor

Centering Prayer Overview

Last week Pastor Jon Burnham participated in an 8 day Centering Prayer retreat in Sewanee, Tennessee. The Session has approved the pastor to invite a guest speaker to present a centering prayer workshop at our church and then to start a centering prayer group for anyone interested in this method of prayer. Centering Prayer is a method of prayer drawn from the Christian tradition of Contemplative Prayer.

Christian Contemplative Prayer is 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.

Centering Prayer is 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.

Learn more about centering prayer click here. More information about the centerint prayer workshop will be available soon.