Centering Prayer

[lilac_angel]

[quote name='Quietfire' post='877074' date='Feb 6 2006, 12:23 PM']Desert Woman,

As a person who is on the "other end" of centering prayer, I admire you for bringing this topic foward to discuss here. I have learned much from this and now have a better understanding of what some people may be going through who are employing this kind of "prayer".

Paranoia seems to be second side effect of this. The first being a moving away from Jesus.
I can personally thank God that I have never felt a need to use such a technique. I have contemplated, and found that through contemplation I have, in fact, grown closer to the Triune God. I also can attest that I have done this pretty much my whole life and never realized I was doing it. After realizing what I was doing, which is pretty difficult to explain here, I was able to focus more on God and the results have been nothing short of amazing.
God truly has been watching over me, a true sinner, and has never let me go. With the help of my Guardian Angel, who I am forever grateful for, I have learned to pay more attention to God and less to the world.

Again, thank you Desert woman. I personally know of one person who I strongly suspect is using the techiniques described in 'centering' and if it's true, then it is slowly destoying their life and they are not even aware of this. 'Centering' has brought them so far away from God that they are a completely different person. Paranoid, hostile, arguementive, indifferent and totally selfish. They honor nothing holy, no holy days, no true prayers, no repentance for their selfish and wrongful actions. Their distain toward Mary especially is hidden hatred.
It is really a scary thing to see a human being reduced to nothing more than an impulse paralleling a base animal action.
Sadly though, they do not call it 'centering' but see it as the only way to communicate with God to receive 'gifts'.
This is terrifying.


Pax[/quote]

I know someone who does it, and while she has her faults, she seems very close to Mary, honors Holy Days and Lent, and is very concerned about life issues. I've never tried it myself.

Edited March 16, 2009 by lilac_angel

[lilac_angel]

[quote name='MissyP89' post='1808772' date='Mar 16 2009, 02:41 PM']Agreed. While I understand the problem with centering prayer, I'm not sure why silencing our mind is a bad thing. I struggle constantly with prayer because there are a half million different things bouncing around my head at any given time. Taking some deep breaths and tuning out those distractions is really important for me.[/quote]

Maybe it's more helpful for those who are naturally introspective and currently have many useless thoughts running through their head, or are naturally prone to anxiety (which I can be)? Maybe it would have the reverse effect in these kinds of people. Rather than creating anxiety in people who already have it, maybe it would quiet those thoughts and then allow that person to actually focus on something other than their own selfish or negative thoughts, concerns, or worries.

Edited March 16, 2009 by lilac_angel

[lilac_angel]

[quote name='Azriel' post='889591' date='Feb 16 2006, 07:16 PM']Meditation isn't bad in and of itself, I think. Just the way some people practice it. I know that Centering prayer is different. But as someone who suffers from Anxiety - I have to meditate to shut my brain off sometimes.

Of course my brand of meditation is focuing not on clearing my brain, but totally focusing on Jesus, Mary or the Saints.[/quote]

[lilac_angel]

[quote name='Desert Walker' post='890360' date='Feb 17 2006, 12:49 PM']What does a psychotherapist do for his patient? He employs a method of sub-conscious suggestion designed to gain control of the very thought prcesses of the patient so that he can suggest the patient OUT of afflictive thought processes. This therapy has been known to cause serious mental damage to people because not all psychotherapists know what they're doing in it. Some psychotherapists have even been known to deliberately gain control of their weakest patients for immoral purposes. The workings of the human mind are such that they can be analyzed scientifically and methods can be developed to modify them[/quote]

Do you have a source for this? I've never heard about this before.

Edited March 16, 2009 by lilac_angel