Thomas Keating

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).

Fr. Thomas Keating, O.C.S.O. (born 7 March 1923) is a Trappist monk (Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance) and priest, known as one of the architects of Centering Prayer, a contemporary method of contemplative prayer, that emerged from St. Joseph's Abbey, Spencer, Massachusetts, in 1975. He was born in New York City and attended Deerfield Academy, Yale University, and Fordham University, graduating in December 1943. He is a founder of the Centering Prayer movement and of Contemplative Outreach, Ltd.

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.