In our Western Culture the need for silence and stillness is not acknowledged. Many even feel uncomfortable with silence, even fearful of it, as John Main says in ‘Word into Silence’: “[Silence] is quite a challenge for people of our time
The tradition and practice of Christian Meditation - 3
Laurence Freeman continues: “The great theological minds and spiritual teachers of the modern era – Rahner, Balthasar, Lonergan, Merton, Main, Griffiths
The tradition and practice of Christian Meditation - 2
Laurence Freeman continues: “In the second half of the last century John Cassian’s ‘Conferences’ led John Main back to the practice of meditation in the Christian tradition, which he had first discovered as a young man in the East.
The tradition and practice of Christian Meditation
What makes meditation Christian is our faith in Jesus. It is Christian too because it is in a historical and theological tradition that leads directly to the mind of Christ.
The Interfaith element, respecting the Truth in all religions, which very much forms part of the ethos of the World Community of Christian Meditation, has also been an important element in the Christian tradition right from the beginning.
The integration of the two sides of our character, the active and the contemplative, is seen in the Gospel of St John as the integration of our human and our Divine side, as exemplified by Jesus. In the following extract of ‘Journey to the Heart’ Laurence Freeman explains:
