Living Water

When Australian national treasure Michael Leunig died last week aged 79, the sense of loss was profound. I had the great privilege of interviewing this man of extraordinary creative gifts, insight and sensitivity, in 1996 and 2000. The following extracts from the interviews explore his yearning for beauty, enchantment, the transcendent and eternal, and his desire to be a voice for the voiceless.

An icon is a window onto the divine, and the word ‘iconic’ has become a favourite word to describe our heroes. One of the most famous icons is the 12th century Byzantine icon, The Virgin of Vladimir, as shown above. It depicts Jesus as a child being held in the arms of his mother Mary, and it still speaks poignantly to us today.

One of the greatest privileges of my life was recently to spend time in prayer and meditation with a dying and dear friend, Rosslyn Lam. I last prayed and meditated with her in hospital, accompanied by her sister and three adult children, two days before she died last month, following a long battle with cancer.

Through the spiritual exercises developed by the founder of the Jesuits, St Ignatius of Loyola, Roland Ashby has experienced Christ’s loving and healing presence as a physical reality. Roland, who is contributing editor of Living Water (www.thelivingwater.com.au), reflects on how Ignatian spirituality has for him been life-transforming, a spring of living water*.

Philip Larkin, one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, was an atheist. Australian poet John Foulcher*, who has a deep Christian faith, reflects on how Larkin’s poetry has been a source of nourishment for him, how it has helped him to face his darkest fears, and how, with all good poetry, it lays bare our common humanity.

Into the growing darkness of our world, St Francis of Assisi shines a light of peace, hope and beauty. Anglican priest and third order Franciscan Pirrial Clift reflects on why this joyful revolutionary, who is commemorated on 4 October, has drawn her ‘like a magnet’, and speaks so powerfully to our time of war and ecological crisis.

Poetry can open our hearts and minds and provide a source of living water for our lives, says author Sarah Bachelard. Dr Bachelard*, who is the founder of the Benedictus Contemplative Church in Canberra, Australia, reflects on how poetry can illuminate our understanding and nourish our lives and faith. This reflection is based on a talk on 8 September at The Well, a monthly online meditation and talk on a mystic or poet*.

Diagnosed with dementia in 2019, retired Anglican priest Dr G. Wayne Short* has learned to embrace his condition, with the help of meditation. Meditation, he says, has allowed him to come home to the ground and centre of his being, and know that he is loved.

Writer and author Clare Boyd-Macrae*, who had long suffered from bouts of depression, told her family ‘I just want to get rid of my demons’. Then she heard about an intensive week of silent meditation, and she signed up to go.

The ‘gold-standards’ of power, perfection and privilege, which dominated Greco-Roman society, continue to capture us, writes poet and scholar the Rev’d Dr Mark S. Burrows.* But Christianity, he says, is a radical rejection of this ‘false gospel’, believing that true strength and freedom lie not in naked self-interest, but in the ‘weakness’ of compassion and putting others’ interests before our own.

August 6 is the day we commemorate the Transfiguration of Jesus (Luke 9:28-36), in which he radiated a dazzling light. August 6 1945 was also the day that America dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, which also radiated a dazzling light, but of a very different kind.

Bird watching is akin to praying. Or, more precisely, bird waiting is an act of contemplative prayer. The Welsh poet and Anglican priest R.S. Thomas, who lived by the sea in North Wales, was a passionate bird watcher. His poem ‘Sea-Watching’ (below) explores the relationship between prayer and bird watching while looking out to sea.

When an injury forced her to slow down, Justine Toh* learned that we can only amble our way to wisdom. Anything that grows your soul takes time, she says, which runs counter to our culture of ‘faster is better and efficiency is everything’.

When we attend with the heart, we can hear the voices of the trees, writes Rodney Marsh.  Here he reflects on what the trees taught him while walking in the Jarrah forest of the Darling Range in Western Australia, and how walking with trees can be a prayer and a blessing.

Rodney Marsh believes that animals in general, and birds in particular, are often ‘messengers of hope’. Here he reflects on his encounters with three avian messengers while walking the Bibbulmun Track in Western Australia, and how they spoke to him of the Divine.

While bushwalking in Western Australia, Rodney Marsh practised a silence and attention that allowed him to discover the silence and generosity of the natural world, and how nature can heal and restore the soul. This is the first article in a series of three in which he reflects on how walking in nature nurtures spiritual well-being.

God has poured his love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit he has given us. (Romans 5:5)

This is one of my favourite Scripture verses, and for me is at the heart of my faith, and why we celebrate Easter. Through a simple practice of mantra meditation (see below) we can tap into this stream of love, and verify the truth of this claim through our own experience.