Centering Prayer vs. Authentic Christian Contemplation

While searching for a parish for her son who is in the military, MB was happy to find a parish near his military base. However, while browsing through the parish’s most recent bulletin, she noticed a recommendation by the pastor about a presentation on centering prayer given by a Trappist monk named Fr. William Menninger. MB asks: “Does the Catholic Church condone this ‘prayer’?  I wonder if [the pastor] has investigated this action before recommending it to his flock? . . . At any rate, I will not recommend this parish to my son.”

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Father Thomas Keating Dies, Age 95

                                       St. Joseph’s Abbey, Spencer, MA  (Wikicommons)

Father Thomas Keating, the Trappist priest who played a major role in introducing the controversial centering prayer movement in the 1970’s, died on October 25 at the age of 95.

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