Excellent! The writing is straightforward and still captures the mystical aspects of prayer.

Centering prayer is a type of meditation. She goes into how this differs from other types of meditation and how to accomplish it. She gets to the point early on in the book and then goes into a lot of detail about the history of centering prayer. Towards the end, she touches on a welcoming prayer I found very helpful.

Great book about going deeper in contemplative practices with God.

Very articulately clarifying. I highly recommend for anyone interested in or practicing the western forms of contemplative prayer. Particularly appreciated her scholarly treatment of its historical context and evolution.

I had been simultaneously reading and listening to it but had to finish the audio by a library return date. I’m still reading the book in order to further integrate the practice, but see no way to note that version and status separately in Goodreads. It seems to force me to designate one or the other.

I just wish she would help me understand the need for the sacred word when my Zen practice of breath witnessing seems an even more direct practice, although I will perhaps conclude that it helps me keep it Christo-centric as I aim to take all thoughts captive to Christ and surrender them to Him.

I give this five stars not because the writing was amazing but because her ideas and guidance have stuck with me even though I read this five years ago. I have given away and re-purchased because I have found her insights to be life changing.

I feel like reading this book opened a door and I am standing on the threshold of an amazing opportunity for transformation. Bourgeault's explanations of cataphatic prayer and apophatic prayer allowed me to see and understand what was not working in my meditative experiences. I have started making Centering Prayer part of my daily life practice, and can already see subtle shifts occuring. Bourgeault's clearly written descriptions for the methods of Centering Prayer and Welcoming Prayer provide wonderful approaches for nurturing the heart through awareness and deepening surrender.

Context: I have dabbled in various forms of meditation over the last five plus years and have been on the look out for a primer on something in the Christian tradition. This book was recommended to me by a clergy member and I have since incorporated some of its components into my daily practice.

Takeaways: I found a number of nuggets throughout the book, but found most of the pages and writing a bit long winded and not very concrete. What resonated with me could have largely been summarized into a long form blog post (primarily Part I on the method of centering prayer and the chapter later in the book on welcoming prayer), though others may enjoy the flow of the writing style and ordering of the book. Below are a few of the nuggets that spoke to me, outside of the general instruction mentioned above:

1. The importance of silence in spirituality: "Virtually every spiritual tradition that holds a vision of human transformation at its heart also claims that a practice of intentional silence is non-negotiable."

2. The metaphor of "putting a stick into the spoke of thinking"

3. Practicing for the big one: "when we enter meditation, it is like a "mini-death"..."

4. The quintessential Jesus response: "...the meeting of any and all life situations (including the final one, where a concentrative method is no longer possible) by the complete, free giving of oneself."

5. There is a wonderful flow chart titled "The False Self in Action" that I believe captures the importance of centering prayer (or other types of meditation) in one image

Recommendation/Conclusion: I recommend this book to those also in search of a meditation practice with a more Christian bend. However, I only give it three stars as I found myself skimming a sizable portion of the book and felt it took a good amount of digging to find the key points. Overall, still worth a read!

This is a densely written book, quite challenging, and one which pays rereading several times. I'm finding it really helpful in helping me to move beyond where I have been in prayer. The author has a knack of explaining difficult concepts in simple terms but the density of the writing means that progress is slow; no matter, because slow reading of this subject matter is appropriate.

I found Chapter 10 From Healing to Holiness most helpful in appreciating that this deep inner work results in a new creation, not simply a repair of the existing creation.

I look forward to discovering more as I reread it....

Not finished yet.

Great start, but I lost steam.

Welcoming approach

Wonderful overview of Centering Prayer in an accessible way. Both old and newcomers to Centering Prayer will find this book welcoming.

A nice boost to my meditation practice.
I love this writer/teacher.

When I first read this book almost 4 years ago, I was just beginning to explore centering prayer as a contemplative practice. I still remember those early fears of descending into silence, facing the prospect of “wasting time” with no other agenda than to be silent. This was so far removed from my Christian upbringing that focused exclusively on cataphatic prayer (engaging our intellect, reason and emotions) – which covered virtually all aspects of my traditional worship experience that engaged my mind and emotions directly. Yet I was drawn to this prospect of engaging with apophatic prayer - a formless and empty prayer that bypasses our capacity for reason, imagination, and emotion. The Christian contemplative tradition teaches that apophatic prayer is much closer to the “abiding in the vine” union to which Jesus invites us. A prayer which focuses not on our agendas for God (such as having God provide us with a certain feeling state or with answers to our intercessory prayers) but on God’s agenda for us (our inner transformation).

After several years of making centering prayer a core spiritual practice in my life, the profound wisdom of this book is even more alive and accessible to me now than it was the first time I encountered it. This book is probably one of the most practical books on contemplative spirituality that I have read with its specific instruction on how to practice centering prayer and its companion practice, the welcoming prayer. It also places centering prayer solidly in the Christian tradition and in the life of Jesus by emphasizing “kenosis” (self-emptying, or “death to self”) as the central focus and activity of this prayer.

I just finished an eight week program of engaging with a variety of mindfulness practices following my reading of The Mindful Way through Depression. Although grateful for these practices of learning to live more fully aware in the present moment, I found myself longing for a return “home” to a mindful practice more grounded in the Christian tradition and purposefully open to the inner transforming grace of the Spirit of God. This book offered a strong reminder that centering prayer is this home for me.