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Centered Living: The Way of Centering Prayer

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After two decades of practicing Eastern meditation, I found what I felt was missing, thanks to Centering Prayer: the presence of the Personhood of God. (I'd grown tired of mind traps and fruitless stillness, and methods emphasing words, breath control, where meditation really degenerated into my clinging to basically repetitive superstitious gesture. Actually, I'm grateful for such experience because it helps me avoid such things in practicing Centering Prayer). The humble, insightful M. Basil Pennington and his colleagues offer a work that is conversational, not didactic. This book boldly asserts the reality of a loving God. All those years I'd focused on the Void, the Impersonal, an inner Something, Someone, kept prodding me, which I initially rejected as old Catholic-school training that was re-surfacing. Now, for me, the big Drawing Card is that the Divine Person glows as the crux, the heart, the very beauty, of this book. Also, Rabbi Kushner, in his foreword, speaks poignantly on becoming one with God as a "Heart Person" in life. So many insightful people, from many spiritual paths have generously contributed to this book. I'm grateful for it.

Father Pennington has wandered into Buddhism. Centering prayer is a form of Buddhist meditation. Read the documents from the Vatican entitled: Jesus Christ bearer of the water of life and Instruction on some aspects of Christian meditation issued by the congregation for the doctrine of the faith.