There are many different types of prayer that we can use in our practice of Step 11. Those among us who are Christians may like to consider the use of centering prayer. A good search engine will find plenty of helpful references and guides on the Internet.

One such site says of centering prayer, "It consists of responding to the Spirit of Christ by consenting to God's presence and action within. It furthers the development of contemplative prayer by quieting our faculties to cooperate with the gift of God's presence. Centering prayer facilitates the movement from more active modes of prayer -- verbal, mental or affective prayer -- into a receptive prayer of resting in God. It emphasizes prayer as a personal relationship with God. At the same time, it is a discipline to foster and serve this relationship by a regular, daily practice of prayer."

This is the purest expression of what Step 11 is about -- the improving of our conscious contact with God as we understand God. It reaches back over the entire history of the Church to the Desert Fathers, and takes in the meditative tradition of people like St. Theresa, Meister Eckhart, and Cistercian priests of the twentieth century. It represents a strand in the Christian tradition that has almost been lost -- the desire to experience fellowship with God rather than merely assenting to belief in God. And it unites people of all faiths -- and of no faith at all -- in the practice of "quiet time" that was an AA practice from that fellowship's very inception.