The Path of Centering Prayer Quotes

“The essential instruction of centering prayer says, When engaged with your thoughts return ever so gently to the sacred word. As contemplation deepens, you appreciate how important the attitude of gentleness is for letting the living Word of God infuse your practice with the sacred word. Many people struggle with the question “How can I be gentle with the sacred word?” Gentleness is something you learn and practice. You learn gentleness in centering prayer by consciously returning to the sacred word with an ease of spirit. You also learn gentleness in centering prayer by being gentle with yourself when you are effortful. And the best way to learn how to act with gentleness in prayer is to let God teach you. God is gentle. As you let go of thoughts and of thinking about thoughts, you let go of your own strategies about being gentle, and you have space in your awareness for God.”
― David Frenette, The Path of Centering Prayer: Deepening Your Experience of God

“When honesty comes into a relationship, deeper truths are possible.”
― David Frenette, The Path of Centering Prayer: Deepening Your Experience of God

“practice the meaning of one word: amen. If you asked me how you could meditate, how you should relate to God, how you might pray, I would whisper, “Amen.” If I remember only one simple thing at the end of my own life, I hope it will be amen.”
― David Frenette, The Path of Centering Prayer: Deepening Your Experience of God

“Centering prayer involves consenting to God’s presence and action within—beyond thoughts, images, and perceptions—in order to form a contemplative relationship with God.”
― David Frenette, The Path of Centering Prayer: Deepening Your Experience of God

“As you prepare yourself—your body and your intention—for the formal period of centering prayer, renew your consent to God’s indwelling presence by observing your breath, beyond and beneath and within your thoughts. Like God, your breath is a presence that acts, that breathes, in you. Notice your breath, present and moving in you, as a symbol of the way God’s presence lives and acts in you. Observing your breath is a way of opening yourself to God, a way of responding to the gift of life.”
― David Frenette, The Path of Centering Prayer: Deepening Your Experience of God