Centering Prayer

This app is the perfect companion for beginning or continuing the journey of centering prayer. The creators don’t charge anything, and yet it has everything you need to begin, including a digital form of the pamphlet available on their website, which gives you the basics of centering prayer. Using the app takes you through a process beginning with an opening prayer, followed by the centering prayer period itself, which you can adjust to a duration you’re comfortable with. You can also select the Bell sounds you prefer to open and close your prayer. After the prayer you’re encouraged to meditate on a closing text. The opening prayer and closing thought can be selected from a number of options available within the app itself. In short, I cannot imagine a better app for free that provides the guidance and support this one does, and does so elegantly. The app was clearly designed by people who have no other motive than to introduce the practice of centering prayer to the widest range of people they can.

I have found the app a very useful aid in my CP practice. If you don’t know CP, it is simply meditation where when you become aware of a thought, you release it, by the use of a short word, silently spoken. Some people use breath or an image instead. And then there is another layer, the concept that you are by this means aware, gradually, that you are “in God”. Usually this is understood in Christian terms, but really, since in Centering Prayer, we release all images or ideas of “God”, it is applicable to any religion, even a spiritual practice that does not involve a deity of any kind, but is just a practice of pure awareness. But the app is specifically Christian, so if that isn’t your tradition, it won’t be helpful for you, most likely. There are many books on CP, just do a search. Thomas Keating’s are foundational, then Cynthia Bourgeault, and David Frenette.

I love this app. I initially downloaded it to help me with the specific daily prayer practice I was cultivating, and it was perfect for that. Yet as the year (or more) since than has unfolded, I find I use it as a sort of “spiritual spot check” to re-center me at times when I get spun out or off in some way - I’ll just do 5 minutes in the car, or even during my work day. I have used it to share a meditation time with friends during a hike or while on a retreat. I use it as a prelude to a form of journaling I do as spiritual inquiry, inviting God into the inquiry through contemplative prayer before I begin my writing time. The sounds are good, the prayer selection abundant, and the directions at the beginning succinct and clear. Thank you for this app - I have shared it happily many times over! Help!! Update: for several months now the app has been all-white! I cannot access any functions. I have hard-reset my phone, deleted then redownloaded the app several times, looked for “app support” as directed but can’t find it. I LOVE this app and use it regularly - can anyone help me? Thanks!

This is my preferred app for meditation meditation/centering prayer. I use it for a long Mo morning meditation of 50 minutes oand can reprogram duration for other meditation s throughout the day or for interruptions. I’ve used it for years. One minor drawbacks; it does not allow a preference to cutout notifications as in a do no disturb mode. Other than that, it is a five-star meditation app! I might also appreciate an interruption feature that would replay the intro souond and resume the duration of the time remaining. The lay monastic” is interrupted in daily life. That ought to be anticipating.

I have enjoyed using this app very much over the past few years. Of course, it is not a totally customizable app (you can’t upload your own background images instead of the seasonal themes, nor enter your own opening/closing prayers, and the screen must stay on or lit during the prayer time without sitting the screen off, etc.). But, the begging and ending bell sounds are good quality (you can hear the ringing) and there are an ample amount of options for how you enter and exit the prayer time. I also like the brief list of “guidelines” at the beginning of the prayer time which have been a helpful reminder for me when I come back to it. Having some kind of tracking of when I last did the prayer, and for how long, would be helpful to have a sense of consistency/inconsistency. For being a free app, it’s well worth it. Thank you!