Reply From The Passionist Provincial, Fr Moons

On September 29, I posted a letter I sent to Fr. Joe Moons, CP, Provincial Superior of the Passionist western US province. In it, I expressed my concern that the Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center staff had fully embraced the “centering prayer” movement, which they represent as coming from the desert fathers, St Theresa of Avila, and St John of the Cross. However, there is nothing traditional about the movement, as it was developed in the 1970s at St Joseph Abbey in Spencer, MA, in consultation with Buddhist representatives.

I pointed out that the CDF had already spoken on "centering prayer" and similar traditions, making it plain that they are not Catholic and do not represent the traditions of St Theresa of Avila and others. Here's his reply:

October 4, 2018

Dear Mr. Bruce,

Thank you for your letter of the September 25, 2018, concerning the use of Centering Prayer at Mater Dolorosa and other retreat centers in the Passionist Community. Centering Prayer is an ancient Christian tradition dating back to the Desert Fathers and has been a mainstay of Contemplative Prayer in the Christian tradition for many centuries.

This prayer form has been reintroduced to a wider range of the community in the 1970's with the birth of the movement. Fr. Keating and Fr. Pennington have both introduced Centering Prayer at our Retreat Centers in the past. This has been a tradition of the Passionists and part of the rich heritage of the Catholic Church and its teaching. There are many thousands of practitioners in the Church today, and we offer regular Centering Prayer retreats in our Passionist Retreat Centers (including Mater Dolorosa) around the United States.

Seeking God's will is a key element in Centering Prayer. It is a prayer of consent, a willingness to open and listen to the will of God. This is not a Buddhist practice. Centering Prayer is focused on the indwelling of the Holy Trinity with the intention to "rest in the Peace of Christ", in line with our theme for the retreat at Mater Dolorosa this year.

From Spiritual Direction according to St. Paul of the Cross by Bennet Kelly, C.P.:

This awareness that we should accept and follow God's will is common to all Christians. We all say, "Thy will be done" in the Our Father. We need patience with ourselves as we only gradually surrender to his will, even though deep down we would doubtless prefer to surrender everything immediately.

Centering Prayer helps us in this process. It complements our other prayers and like all prayer forms, may not be the perfect fit for each of us. This is the reason the Church, as a big tent, has a wide range of spiritual paths, and many different prayer forms.

In our Retreat Centers we have the unique opportunity to introduce and practice these many prayer forms, from Eucharistic Adoration to Lectio Divina, from Ignatian Imaginative prayer to Visio Divina. Many of these forms are contemplative in nature, and Centering Prayer is just another one of them. We never know what is going to impact a retreatant; we can only offer up the richness of our tradition and faith and leave the rest to the Holy Spirit.

I hope this helps you to understand how Centering Prayer fits into the wide range of spiritual traditions available to us faith-filled Catholics. I can assure you that these rich traditions of prayer forms are important and vital to the spiritual life of the members of our Church and its teaching as represented in all our province ministries, including the Passionist ministry at Mater Dolorosa. Thank you for your concern.

Be assured of my prayers as I would appreciate yours.

The other day I was browsing volumes from the Beginning Apologetics series in our parish adoration chapel. Volume 4 covers atheists and the new age movement, and it makes the important point that new-agers will take Christian and Catholic theological terms and redefine them to fit new age concepts. Fr Moons is doing this here, though he's playing footsie with it.

He speaks of "the indwelling of the Holy Trinity with the intention to 'rest in the Peace of Christ'", but he's talking about it in terms of the objectives of Transcendental Meditation, to become a void, rather than active prayer as in CCC 2627, which ascends to the Holy Spirit -- it doesn't indwell, rest, or "center".

I think syncretism is one problem the current Church faces, in this case syncretism with new age. However, as I've said here for some time, I think Anglicanorum coetibus exposes the Church to syncretism with certain types of Protestantism.

I'm inclined to think Fr Moons isn't especially well equipped to deal with theological issues like these, even though the CDF has made the Church's position quite clear several times. There's not much point in trying to argue with him further, but syncretism is a subject I'll deal with here as opportunities come up.