What is Contemplative Outreach?
Fr. Thomas Keating founded Contemplative Outreach specifically to support those who were practising Centering Prayer as he envisaged it. To this end, he set about creating a systematic teaching that would make the rich and long tradition of Christian Contemplative teachings accessible to modern people. He hoped that, by following his theory of the spiritual journey while also practising the Method of Centering Prayer, which does go hand in hand, he would enable people to acquire a complete spiritual education, empowering them to decide where to go from there. We hope some will stay with Contemplative Outreach to train and become teachers who carry on the work.
There has always been a long tradition of various types of prayer groups. However, few, if any, have had the advantage of a systematic spiritual education. Many depended on the leader’s wisdom and learning. This has also applied to many prayer movements of past centuries. In-depth, guided study, especially of the Western Christian tradition, was in the past rare and open only to a few.
Fr Thomas Keating saw a need to meet the growing interest in contemplation among lay people and religious. The latter also suffered from a truncated education in contemplative spirituality. This situation arose for various historical reasons beyond the scope of this article. Thomas Merton is perhaps one of the more famous instigators of the contemplative renewal.
Thomas Keating and Elizabeth, September 2017.
I became very interested in the teachings of Fr. Thomas Keating because he seemed to present a very solid basis for renewing the contemplative spirit in the Church, grounded in sound Christian theology and spirituality. I have spent the past thirty-seven years practising Centring Prayer, studying and training with Fr Thomas. This has involved trips to the USA once or twice a year. Over the years, Fr Thomas has become my mentor and friend, and I stay in regular contact with him. I had also studied Christian Spirituality through a Distance Learning Course before meeting Fr. Thomas Keating. At Christ College, Liverpool, I specialised in Theology and Scripture.
The primary purpose of Contemplative Outreach is to teach the practise of Centering Prayer, but at the same time past on the Western Christian Tradition in the hope that it will educate Christians in their own tradition and encourage them to study some of the sources of this tradition, e.g. St John of the Cross, St Teresa of Avila, The Cloud of Unknowing and St Francis de Sales, to name but a few. (cf. Fr Thomas Keating’s article “A Traditional Blend”). An essential element of this tradition encourages the follower to find a wise mentor.
Centering Prayer is increasingly popular, and many are trying to interpret the method and Fr Thomas’s teaching for themselves. But it is best taught by a Presenter trained by Contemplative Outreach.
Fr Keating intended to develop courses and retreats to train people in his teaching, and this is an ongoing process. Centering Prayer is a subtle yet straightforward method that initiates a process distinct from other popular meditation methods that, at first glance, appear similar.
“……Centering Prayer is a specific method, and it has its own dynamic, and it has to be done according to that dynamic for its fruits to be fully realised and experienced” Fr Thomas Keating, Spiritual Journey, Part One.
It often takes about three years of regular, faithful practice for people to become aware of some of the subtleties. (cf. Fr Keating’s article “Resting in God’s Presence”.)
As you can see, this can be a slow process and requires commitment not only to the practice but also to attending the courses and retreats designed by Fr. Thomas Keating to lead practitioners into greater depth and understanding of the practice.
The system Fr Thomas Keating devised is as follows:
• An Introductory Day or weekend followed by six weeks of study of the extended introductory materials.
• After the Introductory day, one is encouraged to attend a Lectio Divina Day or weekend
• People are also encouraged to attend a Ten-Day Intensive Retreat within their first year or two of practice. This helps firmly establish the practice and is a real help in understanding the teaching materials.
After these, several retreats follow in sequence.
• The Post-Intensive Retreat. This is primarily a silent retreat with longer periods of Centring Prayer.
• An Advanced retreat. This can be of various lengths.
• Heartfulness Retreat. This is the latest retreat and is aimed at those who have been practising for eight to ten years.
As those who have attended these Retreats can attest, they “hear” the materials in an atmosphere of silence and solitude in a very different way from those who only hear them in the everyday environment of daily life. We recognise that this can be a problem for many who cannot afford the time or finances to follow this recommended structure. Contemplative Outreach is exploring ways to broaden this approach. Still, the experience of the regular Ten-Day Intensive Retreat cannot be reproduced in shorter segments, though the teaching that includes the background material on Centring Prayer could be. The regular Ten-Day Intensive is very important for those who wish to become staff members of Contemplative Outreach.
There are also training courses for those who wish to share the method:
• Facilitator Training
• Presenter Training for those wishing to give the Introductory Day.
• Leadership training aimed at those who wish to become a coordinator.
• Practices to bring the Fruits of Centring Prayer into daily life, especially the Welcoming Prayer and the Active Prayer Sentence.
As can be seen, the above is a vast programme which takes commitment, training, study, and time to implement. It also requires a certain level of maturity, both emotionally and spiritually. This is helped by the practice of Centring Prayer and the deliberate dismantling of the False Self system, as outlined in Fr. Keating’s teachings.
Then there are the various enrichment programmes which can run alongside the core materials of the curriculum.
• The United in Prayer Day with groups around the world. This is an annual event that usually takes place in March. The materials, usually a DVD with Fr Keating and sometimes a guest speaker, e.g. Richard Rohr, can be viewed repeatedly, as is true of all Fr Keating’s materials.
• Quiet Days or half days of prolonged Centring Prayer periods with possible discussion of difficulties or sharing of experiences of the benefits of Centring Prayer.
• Centering Prayer Weekends covering a topic from Fr Keating’s teachings, e.g. The False Self, The Human Condition, Lectio Divina, The Welcoming Practice, or other practices for daily life.
• Centering Prayer Intensive Retreats. Short retreats of four or five days or weekends are again aimed at a section of Fr. Keating’s teachings.
While we recognise the value of other methods and insights they bring to the spiritual journey, Contemplative Outreach has its own focus, briefly described above.
“We affirm our solidarity with the contemplative dimension of other religions and sacred tradition.” Theological Principles of Contemplative Outreach.
Of course, there is always room for improvement. However, it would seem wise to run these new ideas past either Fr. Keating himself or the body he has appointed before introducing or integrating them into the original teaching. This would be in keeping with the long Christian Tradition of referring to a wise teacher or group.
Contemplative Outreach continually develops new programmes and courses to support those who practice Centring Prayer. These are always done in consultation with Fr. Keating and by a group of teachers he himself has appointed. It is the purpose of Contemplative Outreach to maintain the integrity and purity of his teaching, which is embodied in the Western Christian Tradition.
It is unfortunate that in this “want it now” society, people are always looking for an instant fix, even in spirituality. There is no quick fax. It takes time and dedication, or as St Teresa of Avila says, “…a determined determination.” But then anything worth doing always does, and the spiritual journey is the one thing that is worth doing for ourselves and for the benefit of all humanity and this beautiful universe of ours.