These monks dreamed of taking the church’s rich, centuries-old tradition of contemplative prayer and distilling it into a simple, easily learned prayer that ordinary people could practice. They ...

This Advent I am beginning (again) the practice of Centering Prayer. This time I am inspired by David Frenette’s fine book, The Path of Centering Prayer: Deepening Your Experience of God. In his work, ...

Kathy and Mike Smith had always been strong participants in their church. But when faced with the death of their 18-year-old daughter, the couple felt they needed something more. "What that situation ...

LITTLE ROCK — Empty the mind. Let the distractions of the day fall away. Listen. God is waiting. That, in a nutshell, is centering prayer, a contemplative practice rooted in the ancient Christian ...

St. Paul encourages us to “not be anxious about anything.” But how to attain such peace in our world so filled with peril and strife, as it surely was in Paul’s day, and in every chapter of history?

Even though the event occurred 70 years ago, I have a vivid memory of an experience in my third year of college, my first year in the major seminary in Huntington, Long Island, N.Y. It was the ...

A technique out there purporting to be a form of Christian prayer has made inroads in countless parishes across the U.S. and Canada. Its promoters try very hard to sound Catholic and monastic, but it ...

There’s an old saying that prayer is talking to God while meditation is listening to God. While it’s an oversimplification, the statement nevertheless conveys a kernel of truth. Meditation and ...

The faint hum of a distant ringing telephone interrupted the meditative silence on the second floor of Central United Methodist Church. Inside the prayer room, three women sat, eyes closed, feet ...