The Butterfly has always been a symbol of transformation. Centering Prayer is a prayer of transformation.
Expand Your Prayer Life
Contemplative prayer is as old as Christianity itself. It complements and enriches all other prayer forms.
Let Go and Let God
Centering prayer is a silent prayer, you sit in silence with God. Silence is God’s first language. You let go of all thoughts and emotions, you simply rest with God.
Learn Centering Prayer
Centering Prayer is a prayer of intention. Your intention is to consent to God’s presence and action in your life.
Contemplative Outreach UK
Contemplative Outreach UK is an evolving, non-denominational organisation. It is run by volunteers. They offer their time, energy and skills as an act of service.
Contemplative Outreach UK supports those who practice Centering Prayer in small groups or as individuals and is open to all sincere seekers from every sacred tradition.
An Explanation of Centering Prayer
“Centering Prayer comes out of a desire to renew, recover and reclaim the Christian contemplative tradition for contemporary times. It is a way of cultivating interior silence and developing a basic disposition towards a relationship with God. Centering Prayer is a cascading movement of consenting- moving from external and interior noises to stillness and, ultimately, to the center of our being beyond self-reflection to being with God: to just sit there and be still in God’s presence… and to let happen what happens”
Thomas Keating
Our Programme
Get in touch with us if you would like to organise an Introductory Day in your area or community. We send a trained presenter to you, to present the background and the method, and give you plenty of opportunity to practice this uniquely simple prayer.
We also offer:
- Various Follow-up Courses
- Intensive 5 or 10 Day Retreats
- Post-intensive Retreats
- Advanced Retreats
- Heartfulness Retreats
- Lectio Divina Retreats
- Courses for Facilitators
- Courses for Presenters
A Christian Prayer for Everyone
Many great Christian saints have cultivated contemplative prayer throughout the centuries: the Desert Fathers, Meister Eckhart, John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila and Thomas Merton to mention a few.
Firmly rooted in ancient Christian tradition, inspired by a centuries-old Christian text, “The Cloud of Unknowing“, Centering Prayer was developed in the 1970s at St. Joseph ‘s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts by three Trappist Monks: Fr Thomas Keating, Fr William Meninger and Fr Basil Pennington. The Contemplative Outreach movement has been growing ever since. People from all races, nations and faith traditions are discovering a way to develop a life-changing way of connecting with God by the power of the Holy Spirit.