in my opinion it could be detrimental and scandalous to the faith of a poorly formed Catholic to engage in any Centering Prayer groups. I have read several books by these groups and attended prayer meetings. I attended the prayer meeting for roughly 3 months and practiced “centering prayer” for about 6 months. The issue was not necessarily the discipline as much as the philosophy that accompanied it. The discipline is really nothing more than stopping the thoughts and finding silence. Its akin to aspirations, chants and other ancient practices found in christian tradition.The problem i found with the whole situation was in the way that the literature was read and shared on. The woman who lead my group was a well educated Catholic who had a divinity degree and also had extensive contact with the people who started the movement. The way the literature was harmonized with the Catholic theology and Oriental Philosophy at times traversed a very gray area. At one point some one asked about hell and the leader quoted thomas keating as saying “the Church doesn’t pronounce any one in hell, therefor i don’t have to believe any one is in hell” i don’t know if it’s true and that he said that, really it doesn’t matter because the group took it as a truth and acceptable Catholic belief. On the other hand the group leader knew extensive history on the heretics in the past and would at times assure the group that all that was written was ultimately acceptable for catholic to practice… yet i haven’t found any Nihil Obstats or Imprimaturs in the books… which, one would think, that a catholic lay movement, that big and resourceful, it would have no problem providing that… in the end i did take some of the discipline and apply to my regular devotion, i disregarded the rest. The trappist orders involved here are on the edge of the theological spectrum and have at times been reprimanded by bishops and the like. They have good intentions and are striving to find a way to stay relevant in a society that views deep prolonged silence as unthinkable. They are trying to bring the wisdom from the monasteries into the general public.The group i “prayed” with were kind loving people hoping to spread some inner peace around. I cant blame them since the people who taught them the faith are the ones teaching them the other stuff too.
