Centering Prayer Book Study
Tuesdays, beginning June 13
6:30 pm, Youth Center
A new book study will begin on June 13. Join in reading The Heart of Centering Prayer: Nondual Christianity in Theory and Practice by Cynthia Bourgeault. The group will meet on Tuesday evenings during the summer at 6:30 pm in the Youth Center and all are welcome to join.
Books are available for purchase in the parish bookstore. Please read the Introduction prior to our first meeting on June 13.
Questions? Email Julie Schultz for more information or reach out to info@stpaulsfay.org and we’ll connect you.
About The Heart of Centering Prayer
The best-selling author of The Wisdom Jesus and The Meaning of Mary Magdalene demystifies the popular Christian meditation method rooted in contemplative prayer
Centering Prayer is the path to a wonderful and radical new way of seeing the world. It is not, as is sometimes thought, simply an act of devotional piety, nor is it simply a Christianized form of other meditation methods. Cynthia Bourgeault here cuts through the misconceptions to show that Centering Prayer is in fact a pioneering development within the Christian contemplative tradition. She provides a practical, complete course in the practice and then goes deeper to analyze what actually happens in Centering Prayer: the mind effectively switches to a new operating system that makes possible the perception of nonduality. With this understanding in place, she then takes us on a journey through one of the sources of the practice, the Christian contemplative classic The Cloud of Unknowing, revealing it to be among the earliest Christian explorations of the phenomenology of consciousness.
Cynthia Bourgeault’s illumination of the Centering Prayer path provides compelling evidence of how important the practice has become in the half-century since it first arose among American Trappist monks, and of its maturation and refinement over the ensuing years of sincere study and practice. It will resonate with beginners on the Centering Prayer path as well as with seasoned practitioners.
— Shambhala Books