Practices
Enter into the foundational practices of the Christian Wisdom path: simple yet transformative disciplines handed down through our lineage of contemplative teachers.
Centering Prayer
Centering Prayer is a silent, meditative practice rooted in the Christian contemplative tradition. By gently releasing thoughts and resting in openness to God’s presence, it fosters inner stillness and deepens our capacity for communion with the divine.
Lectio Divina
Lectio Divina is an ancient practice of sacred reading that invites us to listen deeply to scripture. Through slow, prayerful reflection, we open our hearts to the living Word and allow it to speak personally and transformatively.
Sacred Chant
Sacred Chant (such as chanting the psalms) is an ancient practice that unites voice, breath, and spirit in prayer. Simple melodies and rhythms open the heart, deepen silence, and draw us into the living stream of contemplative tradition.
Welcoming Practice
The Welcoming Practice is a method of gently consenting to God’s presence in the midst of life’s challenges. By acknowledging, feeling, and releasing our inner reactions, we open to greater freedom, healing, and surrender to divine love.
Liturgy
Contemplative Liturgies invite us to enter sacred silence through prayer, chant, and stillness. Rooted in the Christian Wisdom tradition, they open the heart to divine presence and awaken a deeper sense of communion with God and one another.
Centering Prayer
Centering Prayer: The Basics
Nearly every spiritual tradition offers forms of meditation. What makes Centering Prayer unique is that it arises from the heart of Christianity as a practice of consent, releasing thoughts and resting in God’s presence. Rooted in the early desert tradition, it was renewed in our time by teachers such as Thomas Keating, and is central to the mission of The Contemplative Society.
In Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, Cynthia Bourgeault writes that while we may quiet “outer noise,” it is much harder to still the “inner noise.” Centering Prayer is a simple way to reconnect with our natural aptitude for the inner life, a practice that gradually leads us into self-emptying and a more unitive way of being.
How to Practice Centering Prayer
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Find a quiet space. Choose a place where you are unlikely to be disturbed.
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Sit comfortably and alert. Sit in a way that allows you to be relaxed in body and awake in mind. Use a chair, cushion, or prayer rug according to your physical needs and preferences.
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Close your eyes. Gently let your attention shift inward.
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Open your heart. As Cynthia Bourgeault writes: “Allow your heart to open toward that invisible but always present Origin of all that exists."
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Let thoughts go. Whenever you become aware of a thought—no matter what kind—simply release it.
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Introduce a sacred word.
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A sacred word or short phrase helps you return to silence.
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It is a symbol of your intention to remain open, not a mantra to be repeated constantly.
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Sacred words often fall into two categories:
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“God words”: Abba, Jesu, Mary, Reality, Come Lord
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“State words”: love, peace, be still
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As much as possible, let your word or phrase “find you.”
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Stay with the practice. Continue resting in silence for about 20 minutes. At the end of the sit, simply get up and return to your day, leaving the practice behind just as you left behind your thoughts.
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Close the practice with reverence. At the end of your sit, bow, say a brief prayer of thanks, or simply stretch before returning to your day.
A couple notes:
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If you are new to Centering Prayer or find yourself restless, start with 5 minutes per sit. After a few days, extend to 10 minutes, then gradually to 20 minutes. Give the practice at least two weeks before deciding if it is right for you
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Two daily sits of 20–30 minutes each are considered ideal. It is strongly recommended not to exceed 60 minutes total per day unless you are in a structured retreat with experienced guidance
Additional Notes
1. Your sacred word
Many people experiment with a few sacred words before settling on one that feels natural. Once you begin a sit, continue with the same word for the duration. Ideally, let the word “find you” rather than forcing a choice.
2. Timing your sit
Use a gentle timer that won’t jar you at the end—vibration or soft chimes are best. If you use a smartphone, apps like Contemplative Outreach’s Centering Prayer App can help.
3. Beginning your sit
Sit as comfortably as possible, with an upright posture if you can, but adjust as needed. Close your eyes. Some practitioners begin with a brief invocation, chant, or prayer, while others take two or three deep breaths to settle. Remember: Centering Prayer is not about changing or controlling your body or mind, but about consenting to God’s presence.
4. Physical sensations
Treat sensations just as you would thoughts: notice them, let them go, and return to your sacred word. If a sensation becomes too uncomfortable, gently open your awareness, shift your posture, and then return to prayer.
5. Thoughts and feelings
Expect thoughts of all kinds: plans, memories, emotions, even spiritual insights. You may feel peaceful, distracted, irritated, or blissful. Whatever arises, respond in the same way: gently return to your sacred word, the symbol of your “intention to consent to the presence and action of God within”. Do not analyze or judge your experience; simply let it go, over and over again.
6. Ending your sit
Many end with a bow, a short prayer of thanks, or a gentle stretch. Then return to your daily life without clinging to or evaluating the experience of your sit.
*All quotes in this section are from Cynthia Bourgeault, Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening (Cowley Press, 2004).
Lectio Divina
Lectio Divina (Latin for “sacred reading”) is a contemplative practice rooted in the Benedictine tradition. It combines slow, attentive reading of a biblical or sacred text with meditation, prayer, and silence. Its purpose is not study or analysis, but direct encounter: opening ourselves to God’s word here and now, and deepening our knowledge of Christ in our lives today.
Unlike traditional Bible study, Lectio Divina asks us to set aside historical or theological interpretation. Instead, we listen with the heart, engaging the text with imagination, senses, and feeling. The question is always: What is God saying to me through this text in this moment? How does it guide me to walk the Christ path today?
Though originally a communal practice, Lectio Divina can be done either alone or with others.
The Four Movements of Lectio Divina
1. Read (Lectio): Choose a short passage of Scripture or sacred text. Read it slowly and deliberately, aloud if possible, at least twice, emphasizing different words or phrases each time. In the traditional Benedictine style, a passage is often read four times.
2. Meditate (Meditatio): Ponder the words and allow them to penetrate your awareness. Use your faculties of imagination, visualization, senses, and feelings. Receive the meaning rather than forcing one. Ask: What is the Spirit saying to me right now?
3. Pray (Oratio): Respond in prayer to what arises. In a group setting, individuals may speak aloud one or two words that surfaced during meditation. Overlapping responses are welcome; what matters is allowing the Spirit to move freely.
4. Contemplate (Contemplatio): Rest in silence, beyond thought and analysis. Simply allow the presence of God and the grace of what you have received to absorb into your being. “To pray is to remain tranquil in spirit in order to enjoy God for as long a time as possible,” wrote William of Saint-Thierry in the 12th century. Silence is the soil where this prayer takes root.
Digging Deeper: Senses of the Text
Over centuries, the Christian tradition has described multiple “levels” or senses of meaning in Scripture, starting with Origen, through Cassian and Aquinas. These can also enrich the practice of Lectio Divina:
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Literal: The plain meaning of the words. What is happening in the text? History and context shape the story, but complete certainty about the author’s original intent is beyond reach.
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Allegorical/Christological: The sense revealed to the eyes of faith, how the passage sheds light on the mystery of Christ.
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Moral/Tropological: The ethical summons. How should I act in response to this text?
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Unitive/Anagogical/Mystical: Eternal spiritual realities, in which the Scriptures become the organizing principle of life and intelligence.
*We add a fifth dimension: Contemplatio. As William of Saint-Thierry wrote in the 12th century, “To pray is to remain tranquil in spirit in order to enjoy God for as long a time as possible.” In Contemplatio we simply rest in God’s presence, letting go of reasoning, thinking, and feeling. Silence becomes the ground in which this prayer takes root.
Suggested Texts for Lectio Divina
In addition to traditional biblical passages, the Gospel of Thomas can be especially fruitful for Lectio. Recommended translations include those by Marvin Meyer, and Elaine Pagels.
Below are sample passages from the Bible, compiled by Christopher Page (Rector of St. Philip Anglican Church, Victoria, BC):
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Matthew: 7:7-11; 8:1-4; 8:23-27; 9:2-8; 9:18-25; 14:13-20; 16:13-20; 17:1-8; 18:1-5; 26:6-13; 26:36-46; 26:69-75; 27:32-44; 27:45-54; 28:1-10
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Mark: 1:9-13; 1:21-27; 1:40-45; 4:1-9; 4:35-41; 6:45-52; 8:1-9; 8:22-26; 9:2-8; 10:17-22; 11:15-19; 12:41-44; 13:32-37; 14:3-9; 14:43-50; 15:33-39; 16:1-8
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Luke: 1:39-45; 2:25-32; 4:40-44; 5:27-32; 10:38-42; 11:9-13; 11:33-36; 12:13-21; 13:22-32; 13:32-34; 15:1-7; 17:11-19; 19:41-44; 22:14-23; 22:39-46; 24:36-49
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John: 1:1-9; 1:10-18; 1:35-42; 6:16-21; 6:35-40; 7:37-39; 10:1-5; 10:11-18; 12:1-8; 12:20-26; 13:1-11; 13:31-35; 14:1-7; 14:8-14; 14:15-21; 14:25-30; 15:1-11; 15:12-17; 16:12-14; 20:11-18; 20:19-23; 20:24-29
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Romans: 5:1-5; 8:1-11; 8:31-39; 12:1-5; 14:7-12
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1 Corinthians: 13:1-13; 15:35-41; 15:50-56
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2 Corinthians: 4:7-11; 5:1-5; 5:11-15
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Ephesians: 1:17-23; 2:11-22; 3:14-21
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Philippians: 1:3-11; 2:5-11
Sacred Chant
"Chanting is at the heart of all sacred traditions worldwide, and for very good reasons. What meditation accomplishes in silence, chanting accomplishes in sound: it wakes up the emotional center and sets it vibrating to the frequency of love and adoration while feeding the body with that mysterious higher “being food” of divine life. Sacred chanting is an extremely powerful way of awakening and purifying the heart because it allows us to experience, beyond the distortions of our own personal passions, the power and profundity of the divine passion itself.
At its simplest, chanting is simply a matter of putting voice to the words you see on a page. On a single tone is fine. Don’t be embarrassed or self-conscious about how you sound; instead, simply sense the wonder of your own breath and your own tone. Out of these two elements, all sacred traditions agree, the divine Source brought the created realm into being, and these two elements are right there in you! In a mysterious way, your true voice, whether large or small, high or low, bold or timorous, is very closely related to your true self; and as you learn to sing out of your own natural being without pretense or strain, the beauty of your unique quality of aliveness will shine through."
~ Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Way of Knowing: Reclaiming An Ancient Tradition to Awaken the Heart
Christian sacred chant is a contemplative practice that joins breath, voice, and prayer to awaken the heart. Like meditation in silence, chant opens us to God’s presence through sound, attuning us to love and devotion while nourishing body and spirit. Rooted in the early church and the Benedictine monastic tradition, Christian chant carries forward a lineage shared by sacred traditions worldwide, where voice and vibration are seen as pathways into the divine mystery. Simple and accessible, chanting allows us to discover our true voice and deepen our connection with God.
Cynthia Introduces Sacred Chanting
Cynthia Bourgeault introduces sacred chanting as an essential form of worship and Wisdom practice. She also speaks how chant is used within her Wisdom Schools.
The Lord’s Prayer as Embodied Chant
Brian Puida Mitchell shares this embodied chant. The text of the original Greek form of the Lord’s Prayer was translated by scholar Joseph Fitzmeyer into first-century Aramaic, the mother tongue of Jesus. The musical mode used for the chant is Middle Eastern. Brian was a member of the Kamloops Contemplative Group in Kamloops, BC.
Words and music from the recording: Songs of Presence: Contemplative Chants for the New Millennium – A Learning CD produced by Praxis and All Saints’ Episcopal Church.
Chanting the Psalms: A Practical Guide with Instructional CD
Cynthia Bourgeault provides an authoritative guidebook to the hows and whys of chanting in the Wisdom tradition. Everything you need to know: background, a bit of theory, and a wealth of practical tips and encouragement. Instructional CD included.
Wisdom Community Chant Leaders
There are many talented chant writers and leaders within the worldwide Wisdom community, providing a rich collection of beautiful, easy-to-sing Wisdom chants suitable for both personal and group use. Even if you’re a bit shy about your singing, our experienced chant leaders will guide you gently as you discover your own wisdom voice. Learn more on the Wisdom Waypoints website.
Welcoming Practice
Welcoming: The Basics
The Welcoming Practice takes the core of Centring Prayer out into daily life; that is, the witnessing component, which is one of the most transformative of the Christian spiritual practices. According to Cynthia Bourgeault, it is important to identify this as a practice and not a prayer, maintaining the emphasis on the action of letting go as opposed to passive acquiescence to external circumstances.
The practice was developed by Mary Mrozowski in the early 1980s, drawing on her work with biofeedback training, Jean Pierre de Caussade’s Abandonment to Divine Providence, and her integration of Thomas Keating’s teachings on the “false-self system”. It is intended to cultivate surrender to our deeper Self in times when attachment is tempting: difficult feelings and situations, feelings of inflation (eg. smugness, pride, vainglory), and even the “highs” (eg. “I don’t want this to end!”).
Step by Step
1. Focus or sink in: feel the feeling
When the first indications of an emotion or physical upset arise, focus on the sensation in the body. Where in the body is the emotion felt? Feel it without judgment. Don’t think about why the emotion is there or what it means, don’t tell stories – just feel it.
When we can stop and observe the emotion without repressing or justifying it, we can more easily dissipate the energy in it. There is no need to do anything – just notice.
2. Welcome: the turning point
Whatever the sensation is, welcome it by saying internally, “Welcome, pain” or “Welcome, frustration”. It is the sensation that was felt in the first step that is being welcomed, not the situation that brought it on. By doing this, an inner hospitality and unconditional presence is developed. In Cynthia’s words, “’You’ as pure consciousness have trumped ‘you’ as the victim of any story or situation…connected to sensation but separated from story, the inner shift can be extremely powerful”.
By welcoming the sensation, we are thanking our body for alerting us to a provoking situation. Our attitude toward strong emotions that arise from these situations is transformed with practice.
3. Letting go: freedom to choose
The letting go step incorporates the attitude of “let it be”. Surrender requires us to leave behind our wants, needs, and demands on the spiritual journey, giving up the adversarial or grasping position and making space to experience our union with God as the primary importance.
Don’t rush to let go – stay with the physical sensation, alternating between observing and welcoming. Let go of the need to fix anything, to attach stories to the feeling, and wait until the emotional spike has passed. Do not attach to a happy ending. The dissipation of the emotion will make space for heart-centred awareness, creating the inner freedom needed for conscious action, freeing us from the mercy of patterned reactions and victimhood.
4. Summary: Cynthia says it best
“’By the power of the Divine Indwelling active within me, I unconditionally embrace this moment, no matter its physical or psychological content’. And by this same indwelling strength, once inner wholeness is restored, I then choose how to deal with the outer situation, be it by acceptance or by spirited resistance. If the latter course is chosen, the actions taken – reflecting that higher coherence of witnessing presence – will have a greater effectiveness, bearing the right force and appropriate timing that Buddhist teaching classically designates as ‘skillful means’."
*Information drawn from Cynthia Bourgeault’s book The Heart of Centering Prayer: Christian Nonduality in Theory and Practice.
Contemplative Liturgies
Contemplative liturgy offers a way of entering prayer through shared rhythm, silence, and sacred text. Rooted in the Christian Wisdom tradition, these simple forms are designed to deepen presence, open the heart, and attune us to God’s ongoing work in the world. Whether through the cosmic vision of Teilhard de Chardin’s Mass on the World or the meditative chants of Taizé, these liturgies invite groups to gather in prayer that is spacious, inclusive, and transformative.
The resources below provide suggested outlines and materials that can be adapted for use in your own community.
Teilhard de Chardin’s Mass on the World
This is a liturgical version by Cynthia Bourgeault. It is adapted from the Offertory of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s “Mass on the World” (The Heart of Matter, p. 119-121) as excerpted by Ursula King (in Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: Selected Readings, p. 80-81).
How to begin
Participants are seated in a circle. After a few minutes of silent settling, the Mass begins. The readers can read from their seats or can come forward to a lectern or podium. If they choose to sit, it is best for them to be opposite one another in the circle.
If preferred, the whole recitation can be done over soft background music. Cynthia Bourgeault strongly recommend “Essence” by Peter Kater, which is forgiving in the extreme and perfectly adapted to the overall mood and intent.
The Liturgy:
READER 1:
Since once again, Lord…I have neither bread, nor wine, nor altar, I will raise myself beyond these symbols, up to the pure majesty of the real itself; I, your priest, will make the whole world my altar and on it will offer you all the labours and sufferings of the world.
Over there, on the horizon, the sun has just touched with light the outermost fringe of the eastern sky. Once again, beneath this moving sheet of fire, the living surface of the earth wakes and, once again, begins its fearful travail. I will place on my paten, O God, the harvest to be won by this renewal of labor. Into my chalice I shall pour all the sap which is to be pressed out this day from the earth’s fruits.
My chalice and my paten are the depths of a soul laid widely open to all the forces which in a moment will rise up from every corner of the earth and converge upon the Spirit. Grant me the remembrance and the mystic presence of all those whom the light is now awakening to a new day.
READER 2:
One by one, Lord, I see and I love all those whom you have given me to sustain and charm my life. One by one, I also number those who make up that other beloved family which has gradually surrounded me, its unity fashioned out of the most disparate elements, with affinities of the heart, of scientific research, and of thought. And one by one—more vaguely, it is true, yet all-inclusively—I call before me the whole vast anonymous army of living humanity; those who surround me and support me though I do not know them; those who come and those who go; above all, those who in office, laboratory, and factory, through their vision of truth or despite their error, truly believe in the progress of earthly reality and who today will again take up their impassioned pursuit of the light.
This restless multitude, confused or orderly, the immensity of which terrifies us; this ocean of humanity whose slow, monotonous wave-flows trouble the hearts of even those whose faith is most firm; it is to his deep that I thus desire all the fibres of my being should respond. All the things in the world to which this day will bring increase; all those that will diminish; all those, too, that will die: all of them, Lord, I try to gather into my arms to hold them out to you in offering. This is the material of my sacrifice, the only material you desire.
READER 1:
Once upon a time, men took into your temple the first fruits of their harvest, the flower of their flocks. But the offering you really want, the offering you mysteriously need each day to appease your hunger, to slake your thirst, is nothing less than the growth of the world borne ever onward in the stream of universal becoming.
(Reader 1 gestures participants to stand and raise their arms in a mutual oblation.)
Receive, O Lord, this all-embracing host which your whole creation, moved by your magnetism, offers you at this dawn of a new day.
(All in the circle hold the gesture for at least one or two minutes, as long as the energy can be sustained. Then, as Reader 1 lowers their arms, inviting those in the circle to do likewise, Reader 2 begins to speak.)
READER 2:
This bread, our toil, is of itself, I know, but an immense fragmentation; this wine, our pain, is no more, I know, than a draught that dissolves. Yet in the very depths of this formless mass you have implanted—and this I am sure of, for I sense it—a desire, irresistible, hallowing, which makes us cry out, believer and unbeliever alike, “Lord, make us one.”
READER 1:
“Lord, make us one…..”
(Readers encourage others in the circle to join in this spoken petition. When words subside, turn down the music, and readers again sit, inviting participants to do likewise. Liturgy then moves into silent meditation for at least five or ten more minutes.)
*For an extended example, please see the video below