In Memory of Mary Mrozowski: An Exemplar of a Lay Contemplative

Posted on by Yvonne

Mary Mrozowski

Mary Mrozowski died on October 18, 1993. In honor of the 25th anniversary of Mary’s death and her contribution to the contemplative dimension of life, we offer these free recordings of her teachings, as well as a recording and transcript of the eulogy given by Fr. Thomas Keating at her funeral on October 23, 1993, at St. Dominic’s Church, Oyster Bay, Long Island.

Mary Mrozowski was a spiritual teacher in Long Island, NY for 30 years.  Mary was also a spiritual seeker, a mystic, someone who sought the unmediated experience of God.  As a divorced Catholic woman, she intuited that she needed a deep relationship with God to heal her wounds, to teach her how to live, how to love, how to forgive.

Mary Mrozowski was a founding member of Contemplative Outreach, Ltd., attending the first ever Centering Prayer retreat experiment at the Lama Foundation in San Cristobal, New Mexico in 1983.  In 1985, Mary Mrozowski , David Frenette and Bob Bartel established a live-in contemplative community experiment , blessed by Fr. Thomas Keating, in the eastern United States called Chrysalis House. For 11 years, the inhabitants of Chrysalis House lived according to a rule of life, and became an incubator of practice and programs in the early years of Contemplative Outreach’s growth. Many Centering Prayer practitioners and teachers who now carry on the work of Contemplative Outreach were trained and inspired at Chrysalis House.

Mary was a student of the masters of Christian spirituality. She valued their wisdom and understood that people needed help in applying their wisdom to everyday life.  Mary said that her gift was creating “how to’s.”  She knew that people who are on a spiritual journey need prayer practices to help them “let go”.   To this end, Mary Mrozowski created the Welcoming Prayer and the Forgiveness Prayer, practices that have had a profound effect on countless numbers of people over the years.

During the last few years of her life, Mary traveled to share the Welcoming Prayer, the Forgiveness Prayer and other wisdom from living a lay contemplative life.  Mary died in Glenwood, Colorado on October 18, 1993.  She was staying with Sr. Bernadette Teasdale, who recalls Mary emphasizing that that anything we do is prayer if we are consenting to God’s presence and action – frying bacon is prayer; vacuuming the carpet is prayer; and doing the dishes is prayer.

Free downloads:

Free YouTube videos:

  • Centering Prayer, with Mary Mrozowski: After presenting an overview of the contemplative prayer tradition Mary presents the guidelines of Centering Prayer and leads listeners through an experience of the prayer.
  • Prayer as Relationship, with Mary Mrozowski: When we say “let us pray” we are saying “let us deepen our relationship with God.”  Mary shares the tradition of Lectio Divina, offering a contemporary way of experiencing it.