History

The histories of the Christian contemplative tradition, Centering Prayer, and Contemplative Outreach are intimately intertwined. Contemplative Outreach was formed to renew the Christian contemplative heritage through sharing the method of Centering Prayer to all who wish to learn.

The Christian Contemplative Tradition

Though it has acquired other meanings and connotations in recent centuries, the word contemplation had a specific meaning for the first 16 centuries of the Christian era. St. Gregory the Great summed up this meaning at the end of the 6th century as…
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History of Centering Prayer

Centering Prayer was developed as a response to the Vatican II invitation to revive the contemplative teachings of early Christianity and present them in updated formats. In this way, the method of Centering Prayer is drawn from the ancient…
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History of Contemplative Outreach

Contemplative Outreach has its roots in the wish of three monks living at St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts in the early 1970s. Inspired by the decree of Vatican II, the monks wished to develop a method of Christian contemplative prayer…
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