Centering Prayer Commissioned Presenter Training

What this program is

Centering Prayer is the contemporary contemplative Christian method developed in the 1970s by the Trappist monks Thomas Keating, William Meninger, and Basil Pennington at St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts. Drawing on the fourteenth-century English text The Cloud of Unknowing and the wider apophatic Christian tradition, the practice asks the practitioner to consent to God's presence by gently returning a sacred word when thought intervenes. Contemplative Outreach was founded in 1984 to support the practice as it spread beyond monastic settings. The organization is now headquartered in Butler, New Jersey, and supports an international network of local chapters in 39 countries with active groups, retreats, and presenters. Centering Prayer is widely taught in Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, and other Christian denominations; the network is explicitly ecumenical. The Commissioned Presenter Training is the formal pathway for people who want to introduce Centering Prayer to others, lead introductory workshops, and serve as ongoing teachers in their local chapters. The training is multi-tiered: candidates begin as Service Team members in their local chapter, complete the Formation Direct program of online study, attend silent retreats, and progress through mentored apprenticeship to commissioning as a Presenter. Some go further to become Trainers who form other Presenters. The practice itself is straightforward. Sit twice daily for twenty to thirty minutes. Choose a sacred word, perhaps Jesus, peace, abba, or any word that signals consent to God's presence. Sit silently. When the practitioner notices engagement with thought, the word is returned to gently. The framing is not concentration but consent. The work is to let go, repeatedly, of whatever the mind grasps. The Commissioned Presenter credential is recognized across the Centering Prayer network internationally. Costs vary by chapter and stage; the local chapter typically subsidizes formation costs through donations, with Contemplative Outreach providing some courses for set fees. The pathway is donation-based at heart and not gated by ability to pay.

Curriculum and topics

Formation moves through several stages. Candidates begin with the Centering Prayer Workshop and the Welcoming Prayer Workshop, the introductory teachings on the practice and on the Welcoming Prayer's active dimension during daily life. They engage Formation Direct, an online study program covering Thomas Keating's books including Open Mind Open Heart, Invitation to Love, and The Human Condition, alongside study of the Cloud of Unknowing, John of the Cross, and the wider apophatic tradition. Candidates attend Intensive and Post-Intensive silent retreats, typically ten to twenty days of silence cumulatively. They participate in Service Team work in their local chapter, learning the operational side of supporting Centering Prayer groups. Final formation includes mentored co-presenting of workshops with a senior Presenter, written reflection, and review by the local commissioning team.

How it's taught

The pathway combines online study through Formation Direct, residential silent retreats at Contemplative Outreach retreat houses or affiliated centers, local-chapter Service Team participation, and mentored apprenticeship in workshop presenting. Local chapters carry much of the formation work, supported by Contemplative Outreach's national and international staff. Cohort sizes vary by chapter. Mentorship is explicit: candidates are paired with senior Presenters who guide them through co-presenting their first workshops. There's no exam; commissioning is granted after sustained formation, retreat practice, and demonstrated capacity to teach the practice authentically.

Who this program is for

Outcomes

Graduates are formally commissioned as Centering Prayer Presenters within Contemplative Outreach's international network. They lead Introduction to Centering Prayer workshops, the follow-up workshops on the Welcoming Prayer and Lectio Divina, and serve as ongoing teachers in their local chapters. The credential is recognized across the network in 39 countries. It's a teaching authorization within the Centering Prayer tradition, not a clinical or denominational license. Many Presenters also serve in their own denominations as retreat leaders, spiritual directors, or contemplative ministry coordinators.

Prerequisites

Candidates need a sustained Centering Prayer practice, typically twice-daily sittings for several years, plus active involvement in a local chapter and Service Team. The pathway also requires retreat experience, including at least one Centering Prayer Intensive and Post-Intensive silent retreat. There's no required academic credential. Many candidates are also members of clergy, religious orders, or active in lay ministry.

How this compares

Commissioned Presenter Training sits alongside the World Community for Christian Meditation's teacher formation as one of the two most established Christian meditation teacher credentials. Centering Prayer draws on the Cloud of Unknowing and Thomas Keating's framing of the sacred word as a consent symbol; WCCM draws on John Main's reading of Cassian and uses the mantra Maranatha continuously through the sit. The credentials are not interchangeable. Centering Prayer's pathway is more chapter-based and decentralized, with formation costs largely carried by donation. For practitioners drawn to Keating's psychology of the false self and the apophatic Cloud tradition, Contemplative Outreach is the home network.

Frequently asked questions