Brothers and Sister’s in Christ,
I have been working on a catechetical essay on Christian Prayer.
Click here for essay.
The context for it is the debate on Centering Prayer in the Church. On one side we have faithful Christians who bewail it as misguided, and even spiritually dangerous. On the other side we have faithful Christians who swear by it and practice it every day.
I used this controversy as the context to ask the deeper question of what constitutes Christian prayer as such. I have tried to avoid taking an extreme position and to be as balanced as possible. I hope that those of you who practice and teach prayer will consider reading the essay in full, because it is meant to assist in catechesis. In particular, it is meant to assist in providing a resource for understanding how one might respond to this debate as a Catholic, i.e. in a way that is ecclesial and works toward deepening communion.
I have published it on my personal blog since it is a longer essay. I would love it if the text was engaged through the discussion area at the bottom of the posts. The essay is meant to provide a balanced way forward through a debate which sometimes has lacked balance.
If you are looking for an endorsement or condemnation of Centering Prayer as such, that isn’t what my essay is seeking to achieve. Rather it is using this debate as a context for developing criteria for making informed judgements about whether any proposed practice of meditation or prayer is Christian as understood in the communion of Catholic faith. Ultimately, the aim is for us to grow together in our experience of praying as disciples of Jesus.