Weekly Readings Newsletter

Weekly Readings 30/12/2012

A selection from Laurence Freeman OSB, JESUS: THE TEACHER WITHIN (New York: Continuum, 2000) pp. 226-227.

[T]he mantra . . .is recited continuously whatever we may be feeling: “in times of war and times of peace,” as The Cloud of Unknowing puts it; “in times of prosperity and adversity,” as John Cassian puts it; “from the beginning to the end of each meditation,” as John Main said in his turn.

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Weekly Readings 23/12/2012

An excerpt from Fr Laurence's Christmas message to all members of the Weekly Internet Meditation Group, December, 1997.

As we have no birth certificate for Jesus, what is the reason for celebrating his birthday at this time of the year as Christians have done since at least the fourth century? Almost certainly it is linked to the pagan feast of the re-birth of the Sun.

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Weekly Readings 16/12/2012

A special Christmas message to all members of the Weekly Internet Meditation Group and to all meditators from Laurence Freeman OSB, Director, The World Community for Christian Meditation, 2002.

As a reminder that there is no false consolation in Christianity, the church’s readings for the run-up to Christmas have an apocalyptic quality. At times they seem to be more about endings than the great new beginning about to burst upon the world.

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Weekly Readings 9/12/2012

From Laurence Freeman, OSB, “Christmas Message,” email, 2009. 

A Jewish tradition has it that when the angels saw what God had done in the work of creation they burst out with a song of praise that continues throughout time at the heart of all things.

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Weekly Readings 2/12/2012

An excerpt from Laurence Freeman OSB, “Anniversary of John Main, December 30th 1996,” WCCM International Newsletter, Winter, 1996. 

Perhaps one of the perplexing dilemmas for traditional Christianity today is the meaning of communicating the gospel in a non-competitive way in the context of relationships with other faiths. . . .For the exclusivist Christian, this is nonsensical.

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Weekly Readings 25/11/2012

From Fr John Main, “The Life Source,” MOMENT OF CHRIST  (New York: Continuum, 1998), pp. 76-78.

Every great spiritual tradition has known that in profound stillness the human spirit begins to be aware of its own Source. In the Hindu tradition, for example, the Upanishads speak of the spirit of the One who created the universe as dwelling in our heart.

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Weekly Readings 18/11/2012

An excerpt from Laurence Freeman OSB, CHRISTIAN MEDITATION NEWSLETTER, Vol. 34, No. 3, October 2010, pp. 4-5.

The truly other is essential to the mystical and loving mind. Otherness stimulates the mind to let go of its fixed points and expand beyond itself, enlarging the view we have of the world and of ourselves within it.

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Weekly Readings 11/11/2012

An excerpt from Laurence Freeman OSB, “Dearest Friends,” WCCM International Newsletter, December 2007. 

In an age of stress and anxiety like ours the burden of time presses heavily upon us. Without meaning, the intolerable weight of time and, paradoxically, its fleeting disappearance become a crucifixion without a resurrection.

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Weekly Readings 4/11/2012

An excerpt from John Main, ESSENTIAL WRITINGS, ed. Laurence Freeman (Marynoll, NY: Orbis, 2002), p. 109.

The purpose of saying the mantra is that it becomes the focus of your attention. We are not thinking of anything nor are we pursing any insights that may come to us as we say the mantra. Read more »

READINGS FOR 28/10/2012

An excerpt from “Dearest Friends,” Laurence Freeman OSB in the Newsletter of the World Community for Christian Meditation, Vol. 32, No. 3, September 2008, p. 4.

When the force of faith is set free in the human person it impels us to experience reality beyond words, images, and ideas. We then discover that the filters of metaphor, however useful and necessary they may be at one level, can also (and need to) be deactivated if faith is to grow.

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