Surrender · “Let Go to Receive”
The Welcoming Prayer
To carry centering prayer’s letting-go into daily life: feel the upset in the body, welcome it, then let go of the deep desires for security, esteem/affection, and control (and the desire to change the moment).
Keating’s Welcoming Prayer in 3 movements: (1) Focus & sink in — drop into the body and feel the upset as sensation.
(2) Welcome — “Welcome, fear/anger,” stay with it until resistance melts (don’t rush).
(3) Let go — of the desire for security, for esteem/affection, for control, and to change the situation. You release the grip, not the feeling; its charge fades on its own.
What it is
Where Centering Prayer is the formal sit, the Welcoming Prayer is Keating’s method for the moment a difficult emotion grips you during ordinary life — anxiety, anger, hurt, craving.
Its counter-intuitive core: you do not fight the feeling or rush to release it; you first move attention into the body, feel the sensation, and welcome it. Only when the inner resistance softens do you let go — and specifically you let go of the three deep, instinctual drives Keating calls the “energy centers” of the false self: the desire for security/survival, the desire for esteem and affection/approval, and the desire for power and control — plus the desire to change the situation.
It is surrender practiced through full acceptance, not suppression. It operationalizes release-to-receive (The Inner Creates the Outer), present-moment power (The Inner Creates the Outer), attention turned to the felt body (The Inner Creates the Outer), and the deeper Self beneath the reactive false self (All Is One).
(Distinct file note: there are already files for Rohr’s and Bourgeault’s teaching of this practice. Keating is its theological source — the three desires come directly from his false-self / energy-centers model in Invitation to Love.
This file isolates Keating’s own framing and the authentic Contemplative Outreach three-movement method.)
The Method
The three movements as taught by Contemplative Outreach (faithfully described, not reproduced):
- Focus and sink in. When a strong emotion arises, drop attention into your body and feel the sensation — tightness, heat, ache — exactly as it is, without trying to change it. Keating’s reason for starting in the body: “the body never lies.”
- Welcome. Stay with the sensation and gently welcome it — “Welcome, fear” / “Welcome, anger” — receiving it as an opportunity to consent to the Divine Indwelling. Don’t analyse or fix it; remain until the resistance to it begins to dissolve on its own. This is the main work; do not rush past it.
- Let go. When the inner fighting subsides, release the underlying desires: - “I let go of my desire for security and survival.” - “I let go of my desire for esteem and affection (approval).” - “I let go of my desire for power and control.” - “I let go of my desire to change this situation/feeling.” You are not commanding the emotion to leave; you release the grip on the desire it is hooked into, and the charge tends to dissipate by itself. A short consolidated form Contemplative Outreach also teaches: “I let go of my desire for security, affection, control, and embrace this moment as it is.” *(Sourcing note: the three desires are Keating’s false-self “energy centers” from Invitation to Love, attributed. The widely circulated poem beginning “Welcome, welcome, welcome…” is commonly attributed to Keating but Contemplative Outreach states he did not write it — so it is omitted here in favour of the authentic method.)*
Source & Lineage
The Welcoming Prayer was developed by Mary Mrozowski (1925–1993) within the Centering Prayer movement founded by Keating, as the way to carry centering prayer’s interior letting-go out into the body’s daily reactions.
Its conceptual spine — the three instinctual energy centers of the false self (security, esteem/affection, power/control) — is Keating’s, set out in Invitation to Love (1992). It is a companion to Centering Prayer, taught through Contemplative Outreach.
Common refinements
Jumping straight to “let go.” The commonest error: rushing the release to get rid of the feeling. That’s avoidance in disguise — linger in the welcoming until resistance genuinely softens.
- Welcoming as approval. Welcoming the feeling does not endorse a harmful situation; you may still need to act, set a boundary, or leave.
- Commanding the feeling out. You release the grip on the desire, not the emotion; ordering it away reinstates the fight.
- Over-thinking it. This is a felt, embodied practice — stay with sensation, not analysis.