Weekly Readings Newsletter

READINGS FOR 1/7/2012

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 hearts.

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READINGS FOR 24/6/2012

An excerpt from John Main OSB, “From Isolation to Love,” THE WAY OF UNKNOWING (New York: Crossroad, 1990), pp. 44-46.

We meditate because we know with absolute certainty that we must pass through and beyond our own sterility. We must transcend the sterility of the closed system, of a purely introspective mind. We know, with an ever greater clarity, that we have to pass beyond isolation into love.

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READINGS FOR 17/6/2012

From Laurence Freeman OSB, “Forgiveness and Compassion,” ASPECTS OF LOVE (London: Arthur James, 1997), pp. 72-74.

. . . .Forgiveness [is] a process that takes us deep into our own wounded humanity, where we find our true self.  Forgiveness can only be complete when it is as complete as the love of Jesus for his enemies; and that can only come about when we know ourselves as fully as he knew himself, and loved himself.

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READINGS FOR 10/6/2012

An excerpt from John Main OSB, “Integrity,” WORD MADE FLESH (London: DLT, 1993), pp. 55-56.

It often seems as if we rush through life at such high speed while in our heart there is the essential interior flame of being. Our rushing often brings it to the point of extinction. But when we sit down to meditate, in stillness and simplicity, the flame begins to burn brightly and steadily.

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READINGS FOR 3/6/2012

An excerpt from Laurence Freeman OSB, “Letter Three,” WEB OF SILENCE (London: Darton, Longman, Todd, 1996), pp. 28-29,31.

Meditation is the power of prayer that holds our attention at the still point of conversion, where we are shocked into reality by acceptance. By being rooted in this place of transformation which is not geographical but spiritual, our own inmost centre, we are changed from being an approximation, a mere imitation of ourselves, into the exact original of who we are.

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READINGS FOR 27/5/2012

From John Main, OSB, “Beyond All Images,” THE WAY OF UNKNOWING (New York: Crossroad, 1990), pp. 41-43.

Meditation is a way of coming to an immeasurable reality beyond all images. The problem we face on this journey is that we have to sidestep our own ego which is the supreme manufacturer of images, mostly images of ourselves and, to a lesser extent, images of others, even images of God.

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READINGS FOR 20/5/2012

From John Main OSB, "Growing in God," THE WAY OF UNKNOWING (New York: Crossroad, 1990), pp. 79-81.

The longer you meditate, the longer you persevere through the difficulties and the false starts, then the clearer it becomes to you that you have to continue if you are going to lead your life in a meaningful and profound way.

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READINGS FOR 13/5/2012

An excerpt from John Main OSB, “Self-Will and Divine-Will,” MONASTERY WITHOUT WALLS: The Spiritual Letters of John Main (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2006) pp. 195-96.

St Paul tells us that there is a light shining in our hearts. St John tells us that this light is the point of divine consciousness, of infinitely pure love, to be fond and worshipped in every person—the light that enlightens everyone who comes into this world.

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READINGS FOR 6/5/2012

An excerpt from “Dearest Friends: A Letter from Laurence Freeman OSB,” Christian Meditation Newsletter, Vol. 33, No. 1, April 2009.

“The distinction between the office and person,” said Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “is wholly alien to the teaching of Jesus.” In the end, the truth is personal and it can only enter the world when it has conquered the human heart.

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Readings for 29/4/2012

From John Main OSB, “The Christian Crisis,” THE PRESENT CHRIST (New York: Crossroad, 1991), pp. 74-76.

. . . .[T]o become spiritual we have to learn to leave behind our official religious selves—that is, to leave behind the Pharisee that lurks inside all of us—because, as Jesus has told us, we have to leave behind our whole self.

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