February 16, 1997

For several years now a growing number of the faithful in the Archdiocese of Manila has been practising Centering Prayer, and a greater number has heard about it, some through opinions which praise it, others through judgments which condemn or warn against it. The spread of the practice of Centering Prayer and the varying opinions about it have moved the authorities of the Archdiocese of Manila to study the matter. This study included consulting experts in spirituality and persons with extensive experience in teaching and practising Centering Prayer. It is after such study and consultation that this Statement is being issued for the guidance of the faithful.

Centering Prayer Defined

Centering Prayer, correctly understood, is a method designed to prepare sincere followers of Christ for contemplative prayer in the traditional sense in which spiritual writers understood the term for the first sixteen centuries of the Christian era. Centering Prayer is rooted in the word of God, both in person of Jesus Christ and in Scripture. It comes out of traditional Christian spirituality, principally from two sources: The Cloud of Unknowing (by anonymous fourteenth-century author), and St. John of the Cross. Throughout the history of Christianity this kind of prayer has been known by different names, such as the prayer of faith, the prayer of simple regard, the prayer of simplicity, and the prayer of the heart. Centering Prayer is an effort to present these elements of traditional Christian spirituality in updated or contemporary form, and to put a certain order and regularity among and into them.

Centering Prayer is not meant to replace other kinds of prayer (such as vocal prayer, meditation, affective prayer, veneration of sacred images). Centering Prayer is not contemplation in the strict sense, which in Catholic Christian tradition has always been regarded as pure gift of the Holy Spirit. It is rather meant to prepare Christians for contemplative prayer.

To understand Centering Prayer it is necessary to first grasp what contemplative prayer or contemplation is and what its main effects are.

Meaning of and main effects of contemplative prayer or contemplation

Contemplative prayer, also known as contemplation, is the opening of one’s mind, heart and whole being to God, beyond thoughts, words and emotions. It springs from and deepens one’s experiential knowledge of God, a knowledge that is rooted in love.

Contemplation is a great gift of the Holy Spirit which is available in principle to all Christians by virtue of Baptism. It should be a normal development, moved and made possible by God, of the grace of Baptism. By this development, one’s relationship with God gradually grows so that one comes to a friendship with God so deep that one’s mind and heart, going beyond thoughts, words, and emotions, no longer actively seek God, but begin to “rest” in God, “tasting” and “enjoying” God. This condition is not the suspension of all activity, but the reduction and simplication of many acts and thoughts into a single act or thought to sustain one’s consent to God’s loving presence and action.

Contemplative prayer moves beyond ideas and reflections and the multiplication of particular acts, to the level of interior silence in which the person communicates with God in the wordless union of deepest love. In contemplative prayer the deep awareness of God’s presence frees one from making oneself or one’s relationship with God the center of one’s attention. Though one’s own reflections and acts of will are necessary preliminaries to deeper friendship and union with God in and through Christ, one has to transcend these if in the power of the Holy Spirit one is to be able to share with Christ in his most personal prayer to the Father, which is characterized by total self-surrender.

The essence of contemplation is the trusting and loving faith by which God both elevates the human person and purifies him or her from all the conscious and unconscious obstacles that oppose the values of the Gospel and the work of the Spirit. Contemplative prayer therefore makes one “spiritual” in the deepest sense; docile to the guidance of the Holy Spirit in all aspects of our life. It makes for the deep transforma-tion of one’s life in Christ.

How Centering Prayer prepares Christians for contemplative prayer

Centering Prayer prepares Christians for contemplative prayer by its method. This method is precisely meant to deepen faith, hope and love, to free one from attachment to one’s condition and activity, and to focus one’s mind and heart on consenting and surrendering to God’s presence and action within oneself. Centering Prayer reduces the obstacles to contemplation caused by hyperactivity in prayer and excessive dependence on concepts in order to go to God. Centering Prayer prepares Christians for contemplation by cultivating their heart — their inmost being — through disciplining it in order to reduce the obstacles — chiefly selfishness and distraction — that prevent them from following the gentle and subtle inspirations of the Holy Spirit.

Throughout the process of Centering Prayer one intention predominates — the movement of one’s will to consent to God’s intention, which according to Christian faith, is to communicate God’s life to us. Centering Prayer therefore promotes personal union with God, which is the essence of contemplation.

What Centering Prayer is not

Centering Prayer is not a technique which supposedly automatically produces union with God. It is not a relaxation exercise. It is not a form of self-hypnosis. Neither is it merely an altered state of consciousness. It certainly is not Transcendental Meditation or Hinduism or Buddhism in Christian attire. Nor is it a New Age teaching and practice infiltrated into the Christian Churches.

Centering Prayer is not a charismatic gift specially given by the Holy Spirit to some individuals for the encouragement and building up of the Christian community (as in 1 Corinthians 2:1-13). It is not limited to the “felt” presence of God. Nor is it meditation or effective prayer.

Advantages of Centering Prayer

The advantages of Centering Prayer include the following:

* It habituates those who practice it to the language of God, which is loving silence.

* It addresses the contemporary hunger for spiritual- ity in a way that in principle is practicable by anyone, and those who do not find it helpful simply drop it without suffering any harm.

* It is completely rooted in the Christian contemplative tradition. Unlike other Systems like Christian Zen and Christian Yoga, which borrow some elements from other religions and integrate these in a Christian framework, Centering Prayer emerges purely from teaching of the recognized masters of Christian spirituality.

* It renews the Church by fostering contemplative prayer and transformation in Christ, with a deepening of faith, hope, and love authenticated in practice, which results from authentic contemplative prayer.

* It helps attract back to the Church many Catholic Christians who have gone elsewhere searching for spiritual experiences.

Points of caution in relation to Centering Prayer

Though from a Catholic Christian viewpoint, Centering Prayer is a very helpful practice, certain points of caution need to be observed in relation to it. Among these points of caution are the following:

* The practice of Centering Prayer needs spiritual guidance, as its promoters themselves affirm. A qualified spiritual guide is one who has a thorough conceptual background of the Christian contemplative tradition, good judgment, and experience of contemplative prayer. The need for guidance arises in relation to several matters, such as the following:

* There is need for adequate preparation of beginners in prayer, before they can practice Centering Prayer correctly and fruitfully. Beginners need advice, instruction, and support on the following:

* reform of life

* concrete questions on God’s self revelation in Scripture and in the core teaching of the Church (since one cannot love what one does not know)

* basic truths of Catholic Christian faith in order to clarify their interpretation of their spiritual experiences.

* Those who are advancing in the practice of Centering Prayer need spiritual guidance to understand and manage the difficulties that occur in the development of Centering Prayer into the classic mystical path of St. John of the Cross.

* Outside the context of orthodox Catholic Christian faith, it can conceivably be distorted to promote wrong and harmful worldviews and practices.

* It can be misused by the poorly instructed or those with psychological problems, towards such harmful directions as fundamentalist and simplistic interpretation of Scripture, fanaticism, and emotionalism.

* A few of its leading figures have made naive and injudicious pronouncements. These seem to approve of such systems and techniques as Transcendental Meditation and the teaching of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, which aside from being opposed to Christian teaching, also dubious, to say the least, as far as their claims to be forms of authentic spirituality.

Overall assessment of Centering Prayer

On the whole, Centering Prayer, correctly understood, merits the approval of the Catholic Christian faith community. It merits this approval because it is a method which has brought renewal and deepening of Christian prayer and life among increasing numbers of individuals and communities, and has brought many seekers for God and for spiritual life back to the Church. It is a movement of renewal which was born and remains in the bosom of the Church, from which God works much good to all kinds of people everywhere. As long as the necessary precautions mentioned earlier are observed, those who wish to start learning and practising Centering Prayer are highly encouraged to do so.

(Sgd.) + JAIME L. CARDINAL SIN, D.D.

Archbishop of Manila

February 16, 1997