Keating biography

American Cistercian monk and teacher of centring prayer

For the art forger, see Tom Keating. For the American football player, see Tom Keating (American football).

Thomas Keating, O.C.S.O.

(March 7, 1923 – October 25, 2018) was an American Trappist priest known as one of the principal developers of centering prayer, a contemplative method that emerged from St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts.^[1][2]

Life

Keating was born in New York City in March 1923 and attended Deerfield Academy, Yale University, and Fordham University.

In 1984 Keating, along with Gustave Reininger and Edward Bednar, co-founded Contemplative Outreach, Ltd., an international and ecumenical spiritual network that teaches the practice of Centering Prayer and Lectio Divina, a method of prayer drawn from the Christian contemplative tradition.

Contemplative Outreach provides a support system for those on the contemplative path through a wide variety of resourc