Centering Prayer

-Fr. Pennington was not a fragrant dissenter-

I think you meant 'flagrant dissenter.'

Of course, it was nice of you to deny that he smells.

Rob,

Thanks for the catch.

Years ago, I read through Fr. Basil Pennington's book on Thomas Merton, i.e, a retreat using Merton as a guide. There were parts of Fr. Basil's writings that were fine, but so much was of the cutsie variety of spirituality and equivocation that I wondered if he hadn't been brousing through New Age book catalogues instead. Why waste time with Fr. Pennington when there is so much of real quality out there?

Jeff - thanks for posting this.

I have Fr. Pennington's tapes on centering prayer. These tapes were commercially available and appear to be from a talk/seminar that he gave on the subject. In the beginning he mentions Purgatory, and, regarding Purgatory, states, "whatever that is." (I'm quoting him here regarding his comment about Purgatory.)

With a Catholic priest making that statement about Purgatory, I quickly realized that Fr. Pennington, despite being a Catholic priest, was not a friend of the Catholic Church, but an enemy of the Catholic Church. There is NOTHING that I'd care to hear from him. I threw out his tapes.

It always troubled me when Thomas Merton talked about the "ecumenism of the world's believers." Dialoguing with Buddhist monks should mandate mentioning the gospel to them, instead of seeing the similarities in methodology.

George, one of things that impressed me most about Thomas Merton's letters was the frequency with which he urged people of all faiths and no faith to pray the Rosary. To listen, to understand, to engage in dialogue don't equal compromise, necessarily. The ecumenical and interfaith paths are narrow, though. Whoever travels them is sure to fall to the left and the right often. I think what is important is whether they come back obediently to the Center, Who is Jesus, not some vague space of introspection.

Praise God people are finally catching on with how evil centering prayer is. I have been battling it in my Diocese for years and years. Nothing could be further from the Saints' teaching on contemplation. It is a product of the new age movement and can only hurt the Church.

I think that centering prayer is often confused with contemplative prayer. How are they different?

Found some good definitions/examples of both of them on the net.