Call to the Center: Gospel's Invitation to Deeper Prayer

Since I’m a beginner at Centering Prayer this book helped me relax with the practice and not worry about “doing it right”. Suggestions for thoughts on spiritual and scriptural ways to open one’s self to the Holy Spirit’s work are offered. After reading this book I am truly hooked into a deeper relationship with God— something I’ve always prayed for! I will be reading this book again and again!

Call To The Center: The Gospel's Invitation To Deeper Prayer is a collection of meditations by M. Basil Pennington (a Cistercian monk of St. Joseph's Abby in Spencer, Massachusetts) on the Gospel of Matthew. This reflections fairly reverberate with an abiding faith and the power of opening one's heart to God. Light, duty, faith, and reverence form core principles in this enlightening work which is a very highly recommended addition to Christian Studies reading lists and library collections.

The book's title says it all: it is something like a hearing aid, helping us listen to the Gospels with the ears of our hearts. Pennington is so deeply experienced and so learned in this subject that he speaks with supreme authority. He is a teacher to be trusted. This book will be both a guide for beginners and support for those far along the way of prayer. It will be much loved.

Trying to live a life centered on love of Christ, and open to his gifts, is not an easy challenge in today's busy world. This new edition of Fr. Basil Pennington's CALL TO THE CENTER is just what I have been looking for as the next book selection for our centering prayer support group. The chapters are short--excellent for an evening's discussion. It is written in a conversational style, but filled with insights for deepening prayer, and helps for avoiding some of the common difficulties. This is a book that can be read and re-read. Fr. Basil's enthusiasm and genuine love for centering prayer will certainly be an inspiration to those new to this form of prayer, and an encouragement for those who have been following the Gospel's invitation to deeper prayer--the book's subtitle--in the years since, as Fr. Basil reminds us, the "Second Vatican Council has made it most clear that all are called to intimate holiness, to the joy of contemplative union with the Lord."