Centering Prayer is a countercultural act, probably nowhere more so than in the United States. It is part of our cultural fabric to prize doers, the ones who take initiative, who make things happen, who perform above expectations. Certainly, the world, and Western culture in particular, owe much to this mentality, which has its own specific gifts.
It’s also this mentality that makes contemplative practices like Centering Prayer so gosh darn difficult for many people (at least at first). Contemplation is the pure gift of God, and as such, it’s not so much about anything we do, as it is about what God does in, through, and for us! The only real contribution of the practitioner to the transformative power of contemplative prayer is the intentional, welcoming consent to God’s presence and action, most especially within us (other external elements to our practices are simply the packages in which the gift of consent is delivered to God). Beyond that, the call of the practitioner is interior rest and stillness – to simply embrace being along for the ride, however long it takes and wherever it does (or doesn’t) lead. Ironically, the challenge becomes in a sense, not that contemplative practice asks so much of us, but that it asks so little! The potential for newfound freedom is immense, but it takes practice to move away from being a “do it yourselfer.”
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