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An Introduction to Christian Meditation

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An Introduction to Christian Meditation John Main, OSB Rev. John Main, OSB (1926-1982) first encountered How to meditate the universal tradition of meditation while living in Sit down. Sit still and upright, relaxed the East, before becoming a monk. Upon returning home, he entered a Benedictine order, completed but alert. Close your eyes lightly. An Introduction studies in Rome and served as headmaster of a Breathe calmly and regularly. Silently, Benedictine school. He studied the teachings of the interiorly begin to say a single word. Desert Tradition, finding an emphasis on intentional We recommend the prayer-phrase to Christian periods of silent prayer and contemplation. MA-RA-NA-THA. Recite it as four John Main taught Christian meditation to many people. Since his death in 1982, his work has syllables of equal length. Listen to it as Meditation been continued by Rev. Laurence Freeman, OSB, you say it, gently but continuously. who established and currently oversees the World Do not think or imagine anything – Community for Christian Meditation. spiritual or otherwise. If thoughts The World Community and images come, these are for Christian Meditation distractions, so keep returning to In order to support their daily personal commitment simply saying the word. Meditate to meditation, people frequently join a weekly each morning and evening for meditation group. These groups meet in over 120 between twenty and thirty minutes. countries of the world. The silent meditation period is the focal point and main purpose of the meeting. In 1991, the World Community for Christian Suggested reading list Meditation was established to communicate John for beginning meditators Main’s teaching on this way of prayer. There is a Laurence Freeman Christian Meditation: Centre in London, England. An International Guiding Your Daily Practice Board oversees the direction of the community and Laurence Freeman The Selfless Self its activities. National councils and regional boards John Main The Gethsemani Talks also exist to pass on the teaching and to nurture the John Main Word Into Silence weekly groups. John Main Moment of Christ Order online at www.mediomedia.ca Internet resources World Community for Christian Meditation The World Community for Christian www.wccm.org Meditation – Canadian Christian Canadian Christian Meditation Community Meditation Community contacts: www.wccm-canada.ca The World Community December 2019 for Christian Meditation The Way of Is this form of prayer Christian? the Corinthians (I Cor. 16:22), and the word Meditation, also known as contemplative prayer, is with which St. John ends the book of Revelation Christian Meditation the prayer of silence, the place where direct contact (Rev. 22:20). It also has a place in some of the Rev. John Main, OSB with Christ can occur, once the never ceasing earliest Christian liturgies. This Aramaic word is Meditation involves coming to a stillness of spirit activity of the mind has been stilled. In meditation preferred because it has no visual or emotional and a stillness of body. The extraordinary thing is we go beyond words, thoughts, and images into the connotation and its continuous repetition will lead us over time to a deeper and deeper silence. that, in spite of all the distractions of the modern presence of God within. world, this silence is perfectly possible for all of The focus of repeating the prayer word is Will Christian meditation have us. To attain this silence and stillness we have to Christocentric. This means that it is centered on the any effect on my daily life? devote time, energy, and love. prayer of Christ, which is continuously poured forth Because meditation leads us into the experience The way we set out on this pilgrimage is to recite a in the Holy Spirit in the depth of each human being. of love at the centre of our being, it makes us short phrase, a word that today is called a mantra. St. Paul wrote (Rom. 8:26) that “we do not know more loving people in our ordinary lives and The mantra is simply a means of turning our how to pray, but the spirit prays within us.“ What relationships. Not only is meditation the necessary attention beyond ourselves, a method of drawing this means is that, before we can pray, we first basis for contemplative action, but it is the essential us away from our own thoughts and concerns. have to become still, to become attentive. Only then condition for a fully human and Christian response The real work of meditation is to attain harmony can we enter into loving awareness of the Spirit to life. of body, mind, and spirit. This is the aim given of Jesus deep within our own heart. Thus, in this way of “pure prayer” we leave all thoughts, words The wonderful beauty of prayer is that the opening us by the psalmist: “Be still and know that I am of our heart is as natural as the opening of a flower. God.” In meditation, we turn the searchlight of and images behind in order to “set our minds on the kingdom of God before all else”. In this way, we To let a flower open and bloom, it is only necessary consciousness off ourselves. leave our egotistical self behind to die and rise to to let it be, so if we simply are, if we become and In meditation we are not thinking or imagining our true self in Christ. remain still and silent, our heart cannot but be open, about God at all. In meditation we seek to do the spirit cannot but pour through into our whole something immeasurably greater; we seek to be Why should I use a mantra, being. It is for this we have been created. with God, to be with Jesus, to be with his Holy Spirit. and which one should I use? In meditation we go beyond thoughts, even holy An inner journey of silence The mind has been described as a mighty tree thoughts. Meditation is concerned not with thinking Meditation is an inner journey of silence, stillness filled with monkeys, all swinging from branch but with being. Our aim in Christian prayer is to and simplicity, and is the missing contemplative to branch and all in an incessant riot of chatter dimension of much Christian life today. allow God’s mysterious and silent presence within and movement. When we begin to meditate, we Meditation is a pilgrimage to our own centre, to us to become the reality which gives meaning, recognize this as a wonderfully apt description of our own heart. To enter into the simplicity of it shape and purpose to everything we do – to the constant whirl going on in our mind. Prayer is demands discipline, even courage. We need faith everything we are. The task of meditation, not a matter of adding to this confusion by trying and simplicity; we need to become childlike. therefore, is to bring our distracted mind to to shout it down and covering it with another stillness, silence and concentration. lot of chatter. The task of meditation is to bring If we are faithful and patient, meditation will bring Meditation is a gift of such staggering proportions, our distracted mind to stillness, silence, and us into deeper and deeper realms of silence. It is in we must respond to it gradually, gently. When attentiveness. In order to assist us to come to this silence that we are led into the mystery of the we begin, we cannot fully understand the sheer stillness, we use a sacred word, or mantra. eternal silence of God. The invitation of Christian prayer is to lose ourselves and to be absorbed in magnificence and wonder of it. Each time we return There are various prayer words which are possible God. Each of us is summoned to the heights of to meditate, we enter into that reality a little more for a beginner and you may want to choose one Christian prayer, to the fullness of life. What we deeply, a little more faithfully. together with a spiritual teacher. One prayer need, however, is the humility to tread the way very word that has been used over the centuries of the faithfully over a period of years, so that the prayer Christian church is the Aramaic word “Maranatha”, of Christ may indeed be the grounding experience which means “Come Lord, come Lord Jesus.” It is of our lives. the word which St. Paul uses to end his first letter to .
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