Reclaiming the Mystical Heart of Christianity How Centering Prayer Can Deepen Your Experience of God
Contemplative Silent Retreat with Cynthia Bourgeault and other Contemplative Leaders

Reclaiming the Mystical Heart of Christianity

How Centering Prayer Can Deepen Your Experience of God

Contemplative Silent Retreat with Cynthia Bourgeault and other Contemplative Leaders

November 8-14, 2019 or November 8-10, 2019

This retreat provides a sacred opportunity for a large community of contemplatives to gather as a healing presence to the world and to one another. Individually you’ll deepen your Centering Prayer practice with Cynthia Bourgeault, one of the great contemplative guides of our time. The retreat will unpack some of the key ideas in her highly acclaimed book The Heart of Centering Prayer: Nondual Christianity in Theory and Practice. Emphasis will be placed on the notion of “nondual personhood,” as well as the method and foundations of the Centering Prayer practice. Participants will see that Centering Prayer is not simply a Christianized form of other meditation methods, rather a method that has its own specific mechanism to transform consciousness from a narrow to broader perspectives of personhood.

This retreat will be held in silence. Each day will include wisdom teaching with Cynthia, movement practice, Contemplative Eucharist, chanting, and multiple Centering Prayer periods. The retreat is open to practitioners on all spiritual pathways, the basis for our conceptual exploration and practical work will lie in centering prayer and the christian theological perspective which underlies it. All levels are welcome, though an established centering prayer or meditation practice is helpful. For those who cannot attend the full week, we welcome participants to join us for the weekend of November 8-10.

As part of the Christian contemplative experience, Holy Family Retreat Center is providing workshops and retreats to learn more about Centering Prayer and develop a practice in advance of this retreat. It is highly recommended that all attendees new to Centering Prayer attend a Centering Prayer Introductory Workshop prior to this retreat; the more you bring, the more you receive.

Please visit to learn more and to register: https://www.holyfamilyretreat.org/calendar/reclaiming-the-mystical-heart-of-christianity

The following teachers will be assisting and supporting Cynthia in her leadership of the retreat:

• Rev. Matthew Wright
• Rev. Bill Redfield
• Fr. Michael Holleran
• Fr. Bill Sheehan
• Allen Bourque
• Miranda Chapman
• Deborah Welsh