Weekly Readings Newsletter

August 21 Readings

From Laurence Freeman OSB, “Patterns and Identities,” THE SELFLESS SELF (Norwich: Canterbury), pp. 47-48.

Faith does not make sense, it does not make reality, unless it is repeated, unless it perseveres.  What do we persevere in? And how is it that simple perseverance brings about an expansion in depth of life, consciousness and being?

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Weekly Readings 21/08/2011

From Fr. Laurence Freeman ‘ First Sight (Continum, 2011), pp. 34-35.

Faith is a way – a way of life, a way of behaving over time- by which we give.  But if we see it only giving, only as commitment and sacrifice, we will find it hard to grow in the many ways that faith enables us to become more fully human.

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August 14 Readings

From Fr. John Main, "Purity of Heart," WORD MADE FLESH (Norwich: Canterbury, 2009), pp. 58-59.

We often think of freedom merely as the freedom to do what we want to do.  But even the most rudimentary experience of making contact with the power of Jesus in meditation shows us that freedom is not essentially the power to do but the liberty to be who we are

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August 7 Readings

An excerpt from John Main OSB, "I Am as I Am," WORD MADE FLESH: Recovering a Sense of the Sacred through Prayer (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2009), pp. 40-41.

[I]f we can only learn the humility, patience and fidelity to say our mantra we can enter fully into everything there is. This is the present-ness of the mystery of God, who is, who is now, who is always, who is all. Read more »

July 31 Readings

An excerpt from Laurence Freeman OSB, “The Labyrinth,” JESUS THE TEACHER WITHIN (New York: Continuum, 2000), pp. 231-32.

If we are to embrace the eternity of the fullness of being (the “I AM” of God), we must first face the stark reality of impermanence and emptiness.

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July 24 Readings

From John Main OSB, “A Call to the Fullness of Life,” MOMENT OF CHRIST (New York: Continuum, 1998), pp. 110-111.

One thing we learn in meditation is the priority of being over action. 

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July 17 Readings

From Laurence Freeman OSB, “Letter Twelve,” WEB OF SILENCE (London: DLT, 1996), pp. 132-134.

Anyone who has ever sat down to be still immediately engages the first level of consciousness a little below the immediate surface of the mind’s daily functioning awareness. 

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July 10 Readings

Weekly Readings ImageAn excerpt from John Main OSB, MONASTERY WITHOUT WALLS: The Spiritual Letters of John Main (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 20o6), pp. 132-133.

[W]hatever we say about the mystery of God expanding in our life, or about meditation, misses the wholeness and the simplicity of the reality.

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July 3 Readings

An excerpt from John Main OSB, “Letting Go,” JOHN MAIN: ESSENTIAL WRITINGS, Modern Spiritual Masters Series (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2002), p. 127.

One of the most difficult things for Westerners to understand is that meditation is not about trying to make anything happen. Read more »

June 26 Readings

WCCM LogoAn excerpt from John Main OSB, MONASTERY WITHOUT WALLS: The Spiritual Letters of John Main (Norwich: Canterbury, 200), pp. 127-28.

The gift of vision is the wonder of creation. We are empowered to see the reality within which we live and move and have our being. It is not a gift we can ever possess because it is one we are continuously receiving. 

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