Thomas Keating

(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.

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.

Keating died at St. Joseph's Abbey, Spencer, Massachusetts on 25 October 2018, aged 95 years old.

When the concept was first proposed by Keating, Meninger started teaching a method based on the 14th-century spiritual classic The Cloud of Unknowing.

Pennington gave the first retreat to a lay audience in Connecticut where the participants suggested the term "centering prayer".