Fr. Thomas Keating founded Contemplative Outreach in 1984. It spread throughout the United States. It quickly became a global movement as Fr. Thomas found a great thirst for a deeper prayer life in many Christians.
He drew from more than sixty years as a Trappist monk as he shared the wisdom of the Christian Contemplative Tradition which goes back to the beginnings of Christianity.
He was a founding member and the spiritual guide of Contemplative Outreach, LTD., USA. He served on the Contemplative Outreach Board of Trustees since the organization’s beginning.
Fr. Thomas Keating was one of the principal architects and teachers of the Christian contemplative prayer movement. In many ways, Contemplative Outreach is a manifestation of his longtime desire to contribute to the recovery of the contemplative dimension of Christianity.
A Personal Relationship with God
Fr Thomas Keating was born in New York, USA in 1923. His interest in contemplative prayer began during his first year at Yale University in 1940 when he became aware of the Church’s history and of the writings of Christian mystics.
Prompted by these studies and time spent in prayer and meditation, he experienced a profound realization that, on a spiritual level, the Scriptures call people to a personal relationship with God.
Fr. Keating took this call to heart. He transferred to Fordham University in New York and, while waiting to be drafted for service in World War II, he received a deferment to enter a seminary.
Becoming a Trappist Monk
In January 1944 at the age of 20, shortly after graduating from an accelerated program at Fordham, Fr. Keating entered an austere monastic community of the Trappist Order in Valley Falls, Rhode Island, USA.
He was ordained a priest in June of 1949.
In March of 1950, the monastery in Valley Falls burned down, and, as a result, the community moved to Spencer, Massachusetts, where a new monastery was to be built.
Shortly after the move, Fr. Keating became ill with tuberculous and was put into isolation in the city hospital of Worcester, Massachusetts for nine weeks. After returning to the monastery, he stayed in the infirmary for two years.
St. Benedict’s, Snowmass and St Joseph’s, Spencer.
Fr. Keating was sent to Snowmass, Colorado, USA in April 1958 to help start a new monastic community called St. Benedict’s. He remained in Snowmass until 1961, when he was elected abbot of St. Joseph’s in Spencer, prompting his move back to Massachusetts.
He served as abbot of St. Joseph’s for twenty years until he retired in 1981 and returned to Snowmass, where he resided until his death in October 2018.
Development of Centering Prayer
During Fr. Keating’s term as abbot at St. Joseph’s and in response to the reforms of Vatican II, he invited teachers from the East to the monastery. As a result of this exposure to Eastern spiritual traditions, Fr. Keating and several of the monks at St. Joseph’s, inspired by “The Could of Unknowing”, a classic on christian prayer, developed the modern form of Christian contemplative prayer called Centering Prayer. Fr. Keating was a central figure in the initiation of the Centering Prayer movement. He offered Centering Prayer workshops and retreats to clergy and laypeople, and authored articles and books on the method and fruits of Centering Prayer. In 1983, he presented a two-week Intensive Centering Prayer retreat.
This proved to be a watershed event. Many of the people prominent in the Centering Prayer movement today attended this retreat. Contemplative Outreach was created in 1984 to support the growing spiritual network of Centering Prayer practitioners.
Fr. Keating became the community’s president in 1985, a position he held until 1999.
International Influence
Fr. Keating was an internationally renowned theologian and his many books remain very popular. He travelled the world to speak to religious and laypeople on prayer.
He spoke with laypeople and communities about contemplative Christian practices and the psychology of the spiritual journey, which is the subject of his Spiritual Journey DVD series.
After the changes of the Second Vatican Council, Fr. Keating became a core participant in inter-religious dialogue. He was the founder of the Snowmass Conferences, which had its first meeting in the autumn of 1983.
It was at Snowmass that Thomas Keating established a programme of Ten Day Retreats and Post-Intensive Retreats in the practice of Centering Prayer.
Retreats are now held worldwide by those who have been trained by Contemplative Outreach.