June 3, 2005. With heavy heart and confidence in the Resurrection, I announce that Father Basil Pennington, one of the principal original teachers of centering prayer, died June 3, 2005 at 5.40 PM Eastern time. He was being weaned from his respirator and was recovering fairly well from the many surgeries he experienced after his very serious car accident on March 29. He took, however, a sudden and unexpected turn for the worse yesterday morning. He died with his abbot, Father Damian, and Father Matthew, his close friend, with him. He clearly communicated his wish that as he took a turn for the worse, he be allowed to die with no further surgical intervention, peacefully surrounded with his brother monks praying for him. And he did.
This is from thecentering.org website. It's very sad, especially considering I could barely find any news articles about it at all. But then I suppose since it didn't have anything to do with a suicide bomber, Bush, or homosexuality no one cares. I'm kind of assuming that if you read a blog like this you probably already know this, but Pennington was a Trappist monk (i.e. a member of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance) and a prolific writer. His best known work was Centering Prayer which helped to popularize this form of prayer again in the west. Some felt that his thought at times strayed too far afield from traditional Christianity, but regardless he helped to bring the concept of Christian contemplation back to the Western masses.
Br. Basil pray for us.
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