Weekly Readings Newsletter

Readings for 25/3/2012

An excerpt from John Main OSB, “The Inner Christ, MOMENT OF CHRIST (New York: Continuum, 1998), p. 106.

The way of meditation is not a way of escape. Above all, it is not a way of illusion. We neither try to escape the real world of untidy ends and chaotic beginnings and nor do we try to construct an alternative reality of our own. What Jesus promises us is that if we do hold him in reverence in our heart, . . .then all the chaos and all the confusion of the world can have no ultimate power over us.

Read more »

Readings for 18/3/2012

As excerpt from Laurence Freeman OSB, “The Labyrinth,” JESUS THE TEACHER WITHIN (New York: Continuum, 2000), pp. 230-31.

Are we prepared to practice detachment from what we instinctively know is our most precious possession: our separate identity? Relationship with [Jesus] the teacher at this point is of supreme importance. It allows us to risk our own death. By now the discipline of the mantra has led to the fortifying sense of discipleship which empowers us to let ourselves go. We can leave self behind precisely because we are in union and are never alone.

Read more »

Readings for 11/3/2012

A selection from Laurence Freeman OSB, "Spirit," JESUS THE TEACHER WITHIN (New York: Continuum, 2000), pp. 186 87.

The joy of realizing the truth is the bliss of the Spirit. It erases the shame of all previous failures. Aware that this Spirit of truth is with us as a friend, we are better able to tolerate in others and in ourselves what has not yet reached fullness of being. . .Truth is tolerant because the Spirit is forgiving love.

Read more »

Readings for 4/3/2012

An excerpt from John Main OSB, “The Way of Dispossession” in FULLY ALIVE Meditatio Talks Series, 2011, Oct-Dec (London: World Community for Christian Meditation, 2011) p. 11

One of the aspects of meditation we have to come to terms with is to learn to approach it not with seeking to gain something, to possess something. We have to try to approach it much more in terms of total devotion beyond ourselves.

Read more »

Readings for 26/2/2012

An excerpt from John Main OSB, “Healthiness of Spirit” in FULLY ALIVE, MEDITATIO Talk Series 2011-D, Oct-Dec (London: WCCM, 2011), pp. 9-10.

A big problem that all of us have to face is deciding what is really important in our lives and what is trivial, to learn to differentiate between what is passing away and what is enduring. The English medieval writer John of Salisbury wrote:

It’s not possible for one who, with her whole heart, seeks after truth, to cultivate what is merely empty.

Read more »

Readings for 19/2/2012

An excerpt from Laurence Freeman OSB, “Ash Wednesday, Lent 2008,” pp. 2-3, www.wccm.org.

Lent is a time when we refine and purify the spiritual senses and identify the habits or patterns that pollute them. The means of doing this are the exercises we undertake in this season. It is not a time for self-punishment or repression. 

Read more »

Readings for 12/2/2012

From John Main, OSB, “God’s Two Silences,” THE WAY OF UNKNOWING (New York: Crossroad, 1990), pp. 6-8.

We live in a very unsilent world. We live in a world that is so full of bombarding foreground and background noise that we hear everything at once and listen to nothing. And yet each one of us is called into the state of prayer, of pure attention, of expansion of spirit in the eternal silence of God.

Read more »

Readings for 5/2/2012

An excerpt from Laurence Freeman OSB, “Meditation,” JESUS THE TEACHER WITHIN (New York: Continuum, 2000), pp. 212-213.

When he tells us not to worry, Jesus is not denying the reality of daily problems. It is anxiety he is telling us to abandon, not reality. Learning not to worry is hard work. . . .[Yet] despite its “attention-deficiency disorder,” even the modern mind has its natural capacity to be still and to transcend its fixations.

Read more »

Readings for 29/1/2012

An excerpt from John Main OSB, “Death and Resurrection,” MOMENT OF CHRIST (New York: Continuum, 1998), pp. 68-70.

The whole Christian tradition tells us . . .that if we would become wise we must learn the lesson that we have here “no abiding city”. . .But the principal fantasy of much worldliness operates out of completely the opposite point of view. . . The wisdom of our tradition… .is that awareness of our physical weakness enables us to see our own spiritual fragility too. 

Read more »

Readings for 22/1/2012

An excerpt from John Main OSB, “Second Conference,” THE GETHSEMANI TALKS (Tucson, AZ: Medio Media, 2000),  pp.37-39.

Meditation is the prayer of faith because we are willing to follow the Teacher’s command: we are willing to lose our lives so that we may realize fully our potential.
And when we have found our true Self, our task is only beginning.

Read more »

Syndicate content