Skip to main content

Centring Prayer 


SACRED WORD

I'm not an expert and neither am I a very experienced "Centring Pray-er", but this is how I do it.


Choose a short, preferably one, but if necessary, two, syllable word.

Suggestions are: Love, God, Yes, Peace, Joy, Jesus, Spirit, Holy, You, Thou, Yes, This, Here, Now. 

This is not a magic word, it is a simple reminder to ourselves that we are letting go of thoughts - even holy and spiritual ones (!) so that we are not getting in God’s way.
Use your sacred word when you are conscious that you’re entertaining your thoughts instead of letting them go.


1 Sit comfortably, upright if possible.

Pray silently: 

In God alone my soul, in silence, waits
In God alone my soul, in silence
In God alone my soul
In God alone
In God
God Ps 62


2 Offer these words silently: 

This is my "Yes" to you, O God. This, here, now. 

and then repeat your sacred word, 

consenting to God’s presence with you.


Follow this  silent practice for 20 minutes. Let your thoughts go, when you engage with them, as you will many times (!) and you realise what you're doing, use your sacred word to release them and let  the quiet return.  Contemplative Outreach has a great app which explains more about Centring Prayer and also has a great feature that you can use to time your silence and offers various sounds to mark the start and end. In you mobile device app store look up Contemplative Outreach.



3 Don’t try to stop your thoughts, just let them pass and go. When you are aware of reacting to them use your sacred word to let the thoughts go and return, very, very, gently and without annoyance, frustration or anxiety, to letting God be God. 

Let your thoughts pass, neither react to them or repel them, just notice them and then let them go. 

Slowly, over time, you will find this easier. 

Through the space that this allows to form deep in you, God will be re-minding you with the mind of Christ!

You can replace the words at 1 and 2 with words you find more helpful.

Comments

  1. Penny S11 February 2026 at 08:47

    I am a beginner in contemplative prayer but find the use of a single word really helpful to bring my mental nd back from straying thoughts

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Waiting - 3 To die before we die- and find it to be Life!

Waiting - 3 To die before we die- and find it to be Life! Nunc Dimittis Luke 2.29 Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace : according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen : thy salvation; Which thou hast prepared : before the face of all people; To be a light to lighten the Gentiles : and to be the glory of thy people Israel. What does the “normal” Christian life look like? Someone who is regular in church on Sundays, who is community minded, helpful, has a friendly and un-aggressive manner, and who probably does not do much swearing, drinking or indulge in various naughty activities? Fair enough. Except. What’s the difference between an upright, moral, community minded person who helps their neighbour and avoids activities thought by society to be immoral -but who never goes to church, and perhaps has no belief in God of any kind? My answer to that is, probably nothing. Because the “normal” Christian life is not about being moral, acting kindly towards others and so on. Be...
1 comment
Read more

Waiting 2 - Nunc Dimittis

Waiting 2 - Nunc Dimittis Luke 2.29 Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace : according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen : thy salvation; Which thou hast prepared : before the face of all people; To be a light to lighten the Gentiles : and to be the glory of thy people Israel. The New Testament doesn’t have much obvious worship material. The only prayer is the Our Father. There are a few hymns (or ‘canticles’) as Anglican call them Like the Song of Zazhariah (the Benedictus), the Song of Mary (Maginificat) and some snatches of hymns in the epistles, and some passages in Revelation - and the Nunc Dimittis - the Song of Simeon.  Strictly speaking I should leave this to February 2nd and the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple when the story of Simeon and Anna is remembered.  But it struck me about 10 years ago how important the Nunc Dimittis (Latin for ‘Now, Lord”) is for the celebration of waiting. The final wisdom in this life is to learn to rest. I...
Post a Comment
Read more

Empty the Box - Wintering 2

Teaching and Learning on 19th November 2025 As we grew up it became clear that the purpose of life was to make ourselves a cardboard box. We called it school and education, training and maybe even college. We made the box in our own way. In fact it looked a lot like us. And then we started to fill it, because, obviously, that was what life was for. Everyone else was filling their own box so we needed to fill ours too. What did we put in it? We put in things like friendships and maybe deeper relationships. We put in experiences and lots of memories, mostly good, although a few bad ones got in there and wouldn't come out. And of course we put in lots of stuff. We bought clothes and shoes. We bought radios, records or cassettes or CDs or mobile phones and computers. We may have bought a car and maybe, if we were lucky, we bought a house. And anyway, even if it was only a rent, we began to fill our houses with stuff, because they were real boxes and collecting stuff was, obviously, wha...
Post a Comment
Read more