School of Meditation Weekly Teachings

Weekly Teachings 30/12/2012

Perserverance

Closely linked to the Benedictine vow of ‘Conversion’ is the vow of ‘Stability’. Benedict was very aware that the continual conversion, the constant turning to the Divine in prayer and in life required on the spiritual path, was a difficult and often discouraging process.

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Weekly Teachings 23/12/2012

Achievement or Grace?

In the third letter we met the ‘Demon of Acedia’. As we have seen one of the ways we can defeat this ‘Demon’ is through perseverance in meditation/prayer regardless, but this is difficult.

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Weekly Teachings 16/12/2012

Work and Pray

To work and pray was the way for the Desert Fathers and Mothers to arrive at ceaseless prayer: “He prays unceasingly who combines prayer with necessary duties and necessary duties with prayer.

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Weekly Teachings 9/12/2012

Obedience

The first of the Benedictine vows is ‘obedience’. The root of this word is the Latin ob-audiens, meaning ‘to listen intently’.

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Weekly Teachings 2/12/2012

The Gift of Tears

The goal of our spiritual journey is basically the same as that which is expressed in the following saying about the Desert Fathers and Mothers: “What the fathers sought most of all was their own true self, in Christ.

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Weekly Teachings 25/11/2012

Metanoia

‘Metanoia’ is a state linked with the ‘gift of tears’ and ‘repentance’ and flows out of these virtues. The two Greek words at its origin are ‘meta’ and ‘nous’. The pre-fix ‘meta’ means going beyond and also implies change and ‘nous’ is the ‘Intellect’, not rational intelligence but intuitive intelligence.

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Weekly Teachings 18/11/2012

Apatheia and agape

The virtue of repentance helps us to become aware of our ego-centric emotions and it leads to humility, as we become more and more aware of our need of God and that without Christ we can’t do anything.

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Weekly Teachings 11/11/2012

Communion or True Union

Meister Eckhart goes further than the early Christians by expressing the thought, that we can have true knowledge of God, even, in fact, achieve perfect union with God already in this life: “Similarly I have often said that there is something in the soul that is closely related to God that is one with him and not just united

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Weekly Teachings 4/11/2012

Purifying the Emotions

We have seen the importance of the virtues of repentance and humility for our spiritual growth. But there are strong ego-centric emotions that can block any progress. Read more »

Weekly Teachings 29/10/2012

Set Your Mind on God's Kingdom

Over the past five weeks we have been looking at the importance of focussing on our true self, the spark of the Divine within us and the importance of repentance, humility and purifying our self-centred emotions:

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