Centering Prayer: the “Sacred Word”

For those of you who are familiar with the practice of Centering Prayer  as a contemplative practice, I got this very interesting quote today that is from a 14th Century book called The Cloud of Unknowing: The Classic of Medieval Mysticism.  I admit that I never read this book in my travels because the translation is heavy-handed even for me to read.

This quote speaks to the choice of the Sacred Word, which we choose in our Centering Prayer practice, that helps guide us away from thoughts and restlessness and back into a receptive state of prayer:

“…to gather all of your desire into one simple word choose a simple word and leave the faculties at peace.”

I other words, to pull us back into our prayerful mind and away if we can from that restless “monkey mind” it’s best to choose a simple word, not distracting in itself.

I’ve had two in my life (for some reason I’ve never divulged them) and the idea is to find one that is comfortable and live with it, and never switch words mid-prayer (because then you’re off in this whole mental conversation about work choice, word changing, I wonder who else uses that one, is it to silly to use… and on and on and on until your time is up and you’ve spend no time praying and your whole time thinking of a word that is supposed to help you pray!

Examples are words like… peace, Jesus, Abba, Amma, Amen, Mary, etc., All simple words that keep you in the right mode but don’t get distracting like “Joshu’a Fit the Battle of Jericho” etc which would then have me humming and singing, not praying.

Prayer, as difficult and exhausting as it can be to do, is at its root about simplicity and our quiet, kind conversations with our Maker.

Prayer is not a shopping list of Give-Me’s

Prayer is not a blind recitation of memorized phrases that become shallow with years worth of performances.

It’s simply our Honest, laying it all out there conversations, and our most intimate relationship, with God.

 - Amen

Tags: Centering Prayer, cloud of unknowing, contemplative outreach, contemplative prayer, monkey mind, prayer, sacred word, Thomas Keating, Thomas Merton