Introduction
- For the art forger of the same name, see Tom Keating.
- For the American football player of the same name, see Tom Keating (American football)
Thomas Keating, O.C.S.O. (March 7, 1923 – October 25, 2018) was an American Catholic monk and priest of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (also known as Trappists). Keating was known as one of the principal developers of Centering Prayer, a contemporary method of contemplative prayer that emerged from St. Joseph's Abbey, Spencer, Massachusetts.
Life
Keating was born in New York City in December 1923 and attended Deerfield Academy, Yale University, and Fordham University.
Keating entered the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance in Valley Falls, Rhode Island, in January 1944. He was appointed Superior of St. Benedict's Monastery, Snowmass, Colorado, in 1958, and was elected abbot of St. Joseph's Abbey, Spencer, Massachusetts, in 1961. He returned to Snowmass after retiring as abbot of Spencer in 1981, where he established a program of ten-day intensive retreats in the practice of Centering Prayer, a contemporary form of the Christian contemplative tradition.
He was one of three principal developers of Centering Prayer, a contemporary method of contemplative prayer that emerged from St. Joseph's Abbey in 1975. William Meninger and Basil Pennington, also trappist monks, were the method's other principal developers. When the concept was first proposed byKeating, Meninger started teaching a method based on the 14th century spiritual classic The Cloud of Unknowing. Meninger referred to this as the "Prayer of the Cloud" and taught it to priests at the retreat house. Pennington gave the first retreat to a lay audience in Connecticut where the participants suggested the term "Centering Prayer". Since Thomas Merton had been known to use the term prior to this, it has been suggested the phrase may have originated from him.
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 resources, workshops, and retreats.
Keating also helped found the Snowmass Interreligious Conference in 1982 and was a past president of the Temple of Understanding and of the Monastic Interreligious Dialogue among other interreligious activities.
Keating died at St. Joseph's Abbey, Spencer, Massachusetts, on 25 October 2018, aged 94 years old.