Centering Prayer thoughts

Thomas Keating advocates 'centering prayer' as a prayer of the heart. He recommends one or two daily periods in which we wait quietly in God's presence, perhaps repeating a 'sacred word,' and let go of our thoughts, neither holding on to them nor struggling with them. Here are a few of his descriptive sentences.

"Centering prayer is not so much an exercise of attention as intention...

Centering prayer is not a way of turning on the presence of God. Rather it is a way of saying, 'Here I am'...

The sacred word is not a means of going where you want to go. It only directs your intention toward God."

I have found it helpful both at the beginning and at the ending of a day to spend a few minutes in this find of quietness, saying

"My soul waits for the Lord," or "Be still and know that I am God."

I suppose it is like a gentle knocking on God's door to say, "I am here, waiting."

---Leighton Ford, The Attentive Life