Chapter 8: Lighting the Lamps, The House with the Golden Window (4)

As promised on my posting of October 21, I'm continuing with daily comments about Centering Prayer. Take a look at the photograph on the left. Fr. Basil Pennington, one of the instrumental pioneers in re/introducing Centering Prayer to the Church, sits between my friend Jon Kessler and me. Jon played a big part in my return to the Church, and I will tell that story sometime later. As a fervant practioner of Centering Prayer, Jon was desperately ill when this picture was taken. Yet during all his illnesss, he centeringly prayed each day, morning and evening. At the time this picture was taken, May 29, 2000, Jon and I were attending a Centering Prayer retreat with Fr. Basil, somewhere in Minnesota, if I remember rightly. For three days Fr. Basil spoke about Centering Prayer, providing us with its origins and history in the Church, its theological and Biblical foundations, praying with us in a small group, and offering his counsel as we met with him privately. While I can't remember any of the exact words Fr. Basil spoke, I can provide you here with a quotation from one of his books, a quotation which is so quintessentially the voice of Fr. Basil:

Centering Prayer is very simple, very pure, and for that reason very demanding, indeed totally demanding. We should not go to the Prayer seeking to achieve something, to succeed in making a Centering Prayer, in doing it right. We simply seek to be to God and let happen what may. Here Dom Chapman's oft-repeated words are relevant: "Pray as you can, don't pray as you can't" (Centering Prayer: Renewing an Ancient Christian Prayer Form, 97).

If you are unintroduced to Centering Prayer, that may not make a lot of sense to you. Once, however, you come to know a little bit about the Prayer, Fr. Basil's words and encouragement will come home to you in understanding and practice. Our Sunday class hopes to give you that opportunity soon.