THE WELCOMING PRAYER

With Mary Dwyer

Contemplative Outreach of Pensacola

The Welcoming Prayer is an “on-the-go” practice for contemplatives. This prayer practice focuses on the 23 hours a day when we are not doing Centering Prayer and teaches us how to continue to let go in a more active manner. It is a method of consenting to God’s presence and action in our physical and emotional reactions to events and situations in daily life. It is a "letting go" in the present moment, in the midst of the activity of ordinary life.

“To Welcome and let go is one of the most radically loving, faith-filled gestures we can make in each moment of each day. It is an open-hearted embrace of all that is – in ourselves and in the world.”  Mary Mrozowski

 Practicing the Welcoming Prayer offers us the opportunity to make choices free of the false-self system — responding instead of reacting to the present moment. Through the action of the Holy Spirit, the practice empowers us to take appropriate action as freely and lovingly as possible in any situation that presents itself.

The Welcoming Prayer's purpose is to deepen our relationship with God through the consenting in the ordinary activities of our day. This Prayer helps to dismantle the emotional programs of the false-self system and to heal the wounds of a lifetime by addressing them where they are stored – in the body. As such, it contributes to the process of transformation in Christ, initiated in Centering Prayer.

This workshop will introduce us to the actual method of the Welcoming Prayer and provide opportunity for practice. It will include discussions on the human condition and the false-self as conceptual background of the Welcoming Prayer. If you are new to the Welcoming Prayer or have been a long-time practitioner, you will enjoy our time together in silence as well as attending presentations about the Welcoming Prayer. Two periods of Centering Prayer will be part of the workshop. 

Mary Dwyer is a long-time student of Fr. Thomas Keating. In the early 1990s, she lived at Chrysalis House, a contemplative live-in community experiment blessed by Fr. Thomas. Her housemates included Mary Mrozowski, the creator and spiritual mother of the Welcoming Prayer practice. Mary Dwyer now lives in Miami with her husband Juan Llarena (Coordinator of Contemplative Outreach of Miami). She is a member of the National Contemplative Outreach Welcoming Prayer Committee and serves as Chairperson of the Contemplative Outreach governing board. After a career in banking and social work, she now devotes her time to giving retreats and workshops on behalf of Contemplative Outreach.

Please check-in at 8:30 am and enjoy a continental breakfast prior to the workshop beginning at 9 am. Lunch from The Cottage Cafe will be provided. The workshop concludes at 3:30.