In my search to dive deeper into my true-self, and help others do the same, my journey had to include centering prayer. I’m surprised at how unknown this type of prayer is, even to Christians. Centering prayer allows the individual to connect with their center of being beyond logic.
The practice of centering prayer provides the opportunity to….
1) abide with God in the present moment
2) helps the individual relate differently with their thoughts and emotions
3) operate out of the fullness of who one is.
**The goal of centering prayer is to move beyond normal faculties, such as memory, reason, and affective emotion that tend to reinforce the ego and to open to God’s primordial level of the soul.
One common goal of spirituality is to open and soften the heart. I was listening to a talk the other day by Richard Rohr and he said that we can’t open the heart from mere willpower. Often times our heart opens and softens, he said, by love and suffering. Experiencing love and even the worst kind of suffering is what opens us to life and to God. It’s not by reading a book or listening to a talk. Life is what transforms us.
How, then, can centering prayer aid in this? Centering prayer is a quiet surrender to God. When we put our ongoing thoughts to the side, we set our intention to “just be” with God. This prayer is different than what we typically practice. You know, the type of prayer where we give God our list of requests. This prayer is not bad. Not at all. But if we want to go deeper, we need to learn to sit still with God. It’s in the stillness and quiet that we are filled and transformed. “Transformed people transform people.” This quote by Richard Rohr is so compelling. As we are renewed...washed by grace... we can offer healing to others through our interactions. I think this is what the spiritual journey is about. Finding healing in your own life and being able to walk along others to help them find healing as well.
If you’d like to know more about how to go deeper into your self-knowing, check out my course!