The Joys of Silence

Silent Surrender

Thomas Keating’s Open Mind, Open Heart is a book about the practice of ‘centering prayer’. Centering prayer is essentially a prayer of silence and consent to the presence of God.

I’ve practiced this type of prayer and, as I’ve done so, I’ve slowly come to realise that there is something extremely radical about it.

Firstly, what is it? The whole of Keating’s book is an exploration of the answer to that question, but here’s a definitional statement:

Centering prayer is not so much the absence of thoughts as detachment from them. It is the opening of mind and heart, body and emotions - our whole being - to God, the Ultimate Mystery, beyond words, thoughts, and emotions - beyond, in other words, the psychological content of the present moment.

Thomas Keating, Open Mind, Open Heart, p. 12

How we do this is simply by taking 20-30 minutes at the beginning and the end of the day to sit in silence before God.