William Meninger

William Austin Meninger, O.C.S.O. (August 29, 1932 – February 14, 2021 ) was an American Trappist priest who was a spiritual teacher and a principal developer of centering prayer, a method of contemplative prayer.

Early life Meninger was born in Malden, Massachusetts. He was raised and educated in the Boston area in Massachusetts. His mother Katherine was born and raised in County Kerry, Ireland, and his father John was a Quaker from Pennsylvania.

After studying at St. John's Seminary in Boston, Meninger was ordained a priest in 1958 for the Diocese of Yakima in the State of Washington, where he worked on an Indian reservation and with Mexican migrant workers for six years. In 1963 he entered the Trappists at St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts, where he served in the guesthouse for 15 years, as well as teaching scripture, liturgy and patristics to the younger members of the abbey. He served as subprior, prior and dean of the junior professed monks, not yet in final vows. He spent three years in Israel where he studied scripture and taught at the École Biblique in Jerusalem and at the Trappist Monastery of Latrun.

Meninger also did graduate studies at Seattle University, Harvard Divinity School, and Boston University.

He died at the Spence Abbey infirmary on February 14, 2021.