It was my pleasure to interview Gail Fitzpatrick-Hopler on Wednesday, March 30th on my radio show "A Conscious Life.' We discussed Centering Prayer, a method of silent prayer that prepares us to receive the gift of contemplative prayer, prayer in which we experience God's presence within us, closer than breathing, closer than thinking, closer than consciousness itself. Centering Prayer adds depth of meaning to all prayer and facilitates the movement from more active modes of prayer — verbal, mental or affective prayer.

 

For additional information regarding staying connected, Centering Prayer online groups, other programs and online courses, click here.

 

Gail's journey to contemplative Christianity is rooted in the ritual and mystery she experienced in the Catholic Church as a child in the '50s and early '60s, and is informed by her study of Tibetan Buddhism in the '70s and early '80s. She found the convergence of her Christian background and her Buddhist contemplative experience in the contemplative Christian heritage and the practice of Centering Prayer. Gail attended the first intensive Centering Prayer retreat that Fr. Thomas Keating offered at the Lama Foundation in San Cristobal, New Mexico in 1983. As a result, she became a devoted Centering Prayer practitioner and a founding member of Contemplative Outreach. As a laywoman, Gail represents the essence of the community that Contemplative Outreach serves: Christians wishing for a deeper relationship with God through transformation lived out in ordinary life, outside the monastic cloister. www.contemplativeoutreach.org 

 

Father Thomas Keating, Gail Fitzpatrick-Hopler and Father Carl Arico are the principal servant-leaders of Contemplative Outreach, LTD. All three were participants at the 1983 foundational retreat at the Lama Foundation and were among the original organizers of Centering Prayer retreats in New York City, which were key events in the birth of the organization now known as Contemplative Outreach.