Weekly Readings Newsletter

Readings for 15/1/2012

An excerpt from Laurence Freeman OSB, “Dearest Friends,” Christian Mediation Newsletter, Vol. 30, No. 1,  March 2006.

The Desert Fathers, who had read and understood the Gospel, also understood how it is always relationship that is healing. Solitude taught them that and sustained them in the life of their communities. They knew that relationship grows through listening. They also knew what demons were. . . .

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Readings for 8/1/2012

From John Main OSB, "The Oceans of God" (December 1982), THE PRESENT CHRIST(New York: Crossroad, 1991), pp. 111-112, 116-117.

Our life is a unity because it is centered in the mystery of God. But to know that unity we have to see beyond ourselves and with a perspective greater than we generally see with, when self-interest is our dominant concern. Only when we have begun to turn from self-interest and self-consciousness does this larger perspective begin to open.

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Readings for 1/1/2012

An excerpt from John Main OSB from THE BURNING HEART: Reading the New Testament with John Main, ed by Gregory Ryan (London: Darton, Longman + Todd, 1996), pp. 42-43.

For the same God who said, “Out of darkness let light shine,” has caused his light to shine within us, to give the light of revelation—the revelation of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4:6)

Christ is light. He is the light that gives range and depth to our vision. He is also, in his fully realized consciousness, the eyes with which we see the Father in the divine perspective.

Without his light our vision would be tied to the partial dimension and our spirit could not soar above itself into the infinite liberty and crystal clarity of the unified state. Our consciousness would, however wonderful, remain an observer on the periphery, . . .unfulfilled by union with his consciousness, uncoordinated with his Body. . . ... 

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Readings for 25/12/2011

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

Christmas 2011

The 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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Readings for 18/12/2011

From Fr John Main OSB, “Letter Ten, December 18, 1979,” LETTERS FROM THE HEART (New York: Crossroad, 1988), pp. 119-20.

Christmas is a feast that can open the hearts of all of us to the presence of Christ. It puts before us the great qualities of innocence and hope that we need if we are to awaken to his light, and it fills us with confidence because it tells us that the old age has ended.

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Readings for 11/12/2011

An excerpt from John Main OSB, “Space to Be,” MOMENT OF CHRIST (New York:
Continuum, 1998), pp. 92-93.

To know ourselves, to understand ourselves and to . . .get ourselves and our problems in perspective, we simply must make contact with our spirit.

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Readings for 3/12/2011

From Laurence Freeman OSB, “Advent Message: Week 1”

Stay Awake. This is the teaching of Jesus in the gospel for the first Sunday of Advent – the preparation time for Christmas.

I have been traveling in S America and Asia in the past few weeks and have seen the various effects of the global financial crisis.

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Readings for 27/11/2011

Fr. Laurence Freeman, OSB, "Dearest Friends," The WCCM International Newsletter, October 1997, pp. 2-7.

St Anthony of the Desert once spoke to his monks about the judgment day which they would each confront in their moment of death.  He told them that they would not be judged on how far they had become like him, or like any of the other great masters of the desert, but to what degree they had become truly themselves.

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Readings for 20/11/2011

An excerpt from Laurence Freeman OSB, “Understanding Faith,” in FIRST SIGHT: The Experience of Faith (London: Continuum, 2011) pp. 14-15.

Confusing faith with belief and so separating them traps us in the Law—within things we can define, regulations we can enforce, specific creedal formulas that justify us in rejecting others.

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Readings for 13/11/2011

An excerpt from Laurence Freeman OSB, "Dearest Friends," WCCM International Newsletter, December 2000.

The holiness of minute particulars, as Blake called it, is the sacredness of all incarnation: when words take flesh, faith becomes active in love and promises made are kept.

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