Fr. Daniel Renaud, OMI continues exploring the roots of the Contemplative Prayer movement:
[Christian contemplation] can first be traced to the many hours of silent prayers Jesus spent, especially before the breaking of dawn and the morning meal. He sought God’s presence as his most important sustenance. [Fr. Thomas] Keating asserts that for Jesus, contemplation was more important than food! It was then practiced and taught by the dessert Fathers and Mothers in Egypt, Palestine, and Syria including Evagrius, John Cassian, St. John Climacus. In the patristic age, this form of prayer was experienced by St. Augustine and St. Gregory the Great in the West and Pseudo-Dionysius and the Hesychasts in the East. In the middle ages, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, William of St. Thierry and the Rhineland mystics including St. Hildegarde, Meister Eckhart and Tauler were proficient in contemplative prayer. After the reformation, it was practiced by St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross and the French mystics such as St. Fancis de Sale and Bérulle.
Contemplative prayer took many names according to its various forms: Pure Prayer (Cassian), Prayer of Faith, Prayer of the Heart, the Jesus Prayer, Prayer of Simple Regard, etc… As mentioned before, the method of Centering Prayer is primarily based on the famous English mystical text, The Cloud of Unknowing and also on prayer in the writings of Saint John of the Cross. Centering Prayer is an updated format of the teachings of earlier times with a certain order and regularity integrated into it.