To let go of our thoughts is the first step of discipleship. We can’t turn off our thoughts, but we can begin to take the attention off our thoughts. But we need something to help us to do that, and this is the practice, the little method, the little discipline that we have received from those early Christian disciples. What they advise us to do is to take a word – a single word, a sacred word, a prayer word – just one word that sums up every-thing. Remember Jesus said, ‘don’t go babbling on like the pagans who think the more they say the more likely they are to be heard, because your Father knows what you need before you ask’. (Mt 6:7-8) Well let’s put that into practice, and we put it into practice by taking one word which sums it all up.
(Christian Life in the Light of Christian Meditation 1: Discipleship by Laurence Freeman OSB )
