Coaching practices for Lectio and Centering Prayer
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Lectio and Centering Prayer, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I love sitting with scripture and I love silent prayer, but I do them as two separate things and they feel a little disconnected
- When I read scripture I stay stuck in my head
- I find a real stillness in my prayer time and then snap right back into the same reactive, defended person the moment I get up
- After I’ve read and reflected and prayed, I jump straight back into the noise of the day because just sitting in silence feels like doing nothing
- When I try to pray in silence my mind floods with thoughts, and I end up grabbing the "holy" ones and fighting off the distracting ones
Practices that may help
- Combining lectio divina with centering prayer
Use a brief lectio as preparation that deepens the consent you bring to centering prayer.
Centering Prayer: The Method of Thomas Keating - Centering Prayer: The Method of Thomas Keating
Centering Prayer is a contemporary Christian contemplative practice developed by Thomas Keating, William Meninger, and Basil Pennington in the 1970s, drawing on The Cloud of Unknowing and the Desert Father tradition. The method is simple: sit in silence for 20 minutes, use a sacred word as a gentle intention to consent to God’s presence, and release all thoughts as they arise. It is a devotional practice; some components parallel studied meditation mechanisms, but centering prayer as a whole has not been evaluated in controlled trials. - Moving from reading into wordless presence
Let sacred reading gradually release into silence rather than remaining an intellectual activity.
Contemplative Prayer: The Inner Journey - Carrying contemplative consent into daily activity
Let the quality of openness and consent from the sit carry into how you move through the day.
Centering Prayer: The Method of Thomas Keating - Contemplatio: resting in wordless presence
Release words and rest in simple, open presence — the fruit and culmination of the practice.
Lectio Divina: Sacred Reading - Lectio Divina: Sacred Reading
Lectio divina ("sacred reading") is a Benedictine monastic practice in which a short sacred text is read slowly and repeatedly, moving through four stages: reading (lectio), reflection (meditatio), prayerful response (oratio), and silent resting (contemplatio). It is not study for information but a way of letting a text work on the reader. It has been practiced in Western monasticism since at least the 6th century; its specific benefits are reported experientially rather than established by controlled research. - Releasing all thoughts without judgment
Let every thought — pleasant or unpleasant, trivial or profound — pass without engaging it.
Centering Prayer: The Method of Thomas Keating - Making lectio divina a brief, daily practice
Practice a short lectio daily rather than a long lectio occasionally.
Lectio Divina: Sacred Reading - Choosing and using a sacred word
Select one simple word as your symbol of consent to God’s presence and action within.
Centering Prayer: The Method of Thomas Keating - Oratio: praying in response to what arose
Let what the text touched in you become a prayer — honest, spontaneous, personal.
Lectio Divina: Sacred Reading
Related concerns
- Combining Lectio Divina Centering Prayer
Use a brief lectio as preparation that deepens the consent you bring to centering prayer.
Combining lectio divina with centering prayer
- Sacred Word Centering Prayer
Select one simple word as your symbol of consent to God’s presence and action within.
Choosing and using a sacred word
- Benedictine And Trappist Prayer
Centering Prayer is a contemporary Christian contemplative practice developed by Thomas Keating, William Meninger, and Basil Pennington in the 1970s, drawing on The Cloud of Unknowing and the Desert Father tradition. The method is simple: sit in silence for 20 minutes, use a sacred word as a gentle intention to consent to God’s presence, and release all thoughts as they arise. It is a devotional practice; some components parallel studied meditation mechanisms, but centering prayer as a whole has not been evaluated in controlled trials.
- Benedictine Prayer Method
Centering Prayer is a contemporary Christian contemplative practice developed by Thomas Keating, William Meninger, and Basil Pennington in the 1970s, drawing on The Cloud of Unknowing and the Desert Father tradition. The method is simple: sit in silence for 20 minutes, use a sacred word as a gentle intention to consent to God’s presence, and release all thoughts as they arise. It is a devotional practice; some components parallel studied meditation mechanisms, but centering prayer as a whole has not been evaluated in controlled trials.
- Centering Prayer The Method Of Thomas Keating Before Bed
Centering Prayer is a contemporary Christian contemplative practice developed by Thomas Keating, William Meninger, and Basil Pennington in the 1970s, drawing on The Cloud of Unknowing and the Desert Father tradition. The method is simple: sit in silence for 20 minutes, use a sacred word as a gentle intention to consent to God’s presence, and release all thoughts as they arise. It is a devotional practice; some components parallel studied meditation mechanisms, but centering prayer as a whole has not been evaluated in controlled trials.
- Consent Symbol Prayer
Select one simple word as your symbol of consent to God’s presence and action within.
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