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.
Baptism, if remembered, is a tame occurrence for many, but at its heart it is a wild gift, writes Fr Robert Whalley. Drawing on a poem by W.H. Auden, the following is a reflection by the late Anglican priest that he posted on his blog and social media in January 2022.
The innate nature of children, and therefore of all of us, is closeness to Divine Reality, says author Kim Nataraja*. Through meditation, she says, we can attune to the pure spiritual consciousness we were born with.
In his poem Not A One, Mark Nepo reflects on how ‘being awake’ depends on outgrowing our masks, which Noel Keating says is one of the fruits of meditation. Long-time meditator, educator and author Dr Keating* continues his reflection on how poetry gives rise to rich contemplative insights and helps deepen our appreciation of the mystery of our own spiritual experience. The articles are a slightly edited version of an online talk Dr Keating gave to a group of Christian meditators on 28 August 2023*.
Just as meditation moves our consciousness from the head to the heart, and from Doing to Being, so poetry also leads us to an inner richness that we hunger to experience. Long-time meditator, educator and author Dr Noel Keating* reflects on how poetry gives rise to rich contemplative insights and helps deepen our appreciation of the mystery of our own spiritual experience. Part II of his reflection will appear in two weeks. The articles are a slightly edited version of an online talk Dr Keating gave to a group of Christian meditators on 28 August 2023*.
Following the Rwandan genocide, a planned campaign of mass murder in 1994, World Vision sent John Steward and his wife Sandi there in 1997 to manage its reconciliation and peace-building program. Here John reflects on what he learned about peace-building, and the lessons that can be learned in the Middle East, particularly as we celebrate the coming of the ‘Prince of Peace’.
In meditation we discover our essential unity with one another, and also the Earth, says author Jim Green*. And in this act of contemplation, or communing, our consciousness is transformed, and we both hear the cry of the Earth and are at one with it. In the following edited extract from his online course, Contemplating Earth, Jim reflects on the crisis now facing humanity and the planet as COP28 meets in Dubai, and the urgency of a contemplative response.
If we’re to save our world from catastrophic climate change then we need to learn to make sacrifices, argues Justine Toh. And, she says, the 20th century French philosopher and mystic Simone Weil shows us how.
We must not let hate, fear and anger seep into our being, argues Bishop Philip Huggins*. And we must continue to hope for a better world, and strive to make it happen, he says, by rekindling simple bonds of trust and friendship.
It is with an almost overwhelming sense of sadness and despair that we have witnessed such diabolical atrocities being committed in the Middle East, and the unleashing of such terrifying anger, hatred and violence.
Christians must wake up to the insanity of an economic system based on compulsive consumerism and rampant inequality, argues Sarah Bachelard. Theologian, author and long-time meditator, Dr Bachelard* says that in our era of deepening ecological and social crisis, Christians are called to action as well as prayer, to a transformation of lifestyle as well as of consciousness.
A pilgrimage is a journey of sacred encounter, where the inner and the outer meet. Theologian, author and long-time meditator *Dr Sarah Bachelard reflects on her own pilgrimage through the majestic wilderness of Tasmania’s Overland Track, and how deep inwardness, and transformed awareness of the living world, can lead to profound blessing.
It is all too easy to fall into despair at the state of our world. Global warming, war, greed and inequality all pose a serious threat to the future of humanity and the future of the planet.
The following two responses, written in the style of Psalms of Lament, of which there are many examples in the Bible, cry out to God in sorrow, grief and anger, while also clinging to the hope that the God of Love, infinite source of a love that is stronger than death, will not desert us in this hour of need.
Thomas Merton – monk, writer, poet, prophet – was a wild young man who ‘came home’ to God, devoting his monastic years to seeking the face of God and being a courageous witness to God’s love. Robert Whalley reflects on one of the greatest Christian mystics of the 20th Century, whose centenary was celebrated in 2015, when this article first appeared*. Contributing Editor of Living Water, Roland Ashby, writes: I am re-publishing the article on Living Water as a tribute both to Thomas Merton, and to its author, Robert Whalley. Robert, who died earlier this month following a long illness, was an American who settled in Victoria, Australia. He spent most of his ministry in teaching and tertiary chaplaincy, and was ordained an Anglican priest in 2010. He had a profound love for Merton and was founder and director of the Merton Centre in Australia. As a gifted teacher and retreat leader he introduced many to Merton, and communicated an infectious affection and enthusiasm for Merton which sprang from a deep and intimate knowledge of Merton’s writing. Indeed, such was his love for, and knowledge of Merton, that he made me and others feel that we had met and known Merton himself. This is a precious gift for which I, and many others, will be eternally grateful.
Long-time meditator and retired chaplain Adele Mapperson recently received a profound and life-changing insight into the sacredness of the human person, and how God is alive in the very fibre of our being. Adele is also coordinator of the Victorian Chapter of the World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM) in Australia. This is a slightly edited version of a talk she gave on 17 June 2023.
Retired teacher Gilly Withers has suffered pain and loss, but through Christian meditation she has found strength, love and deep joy. A long-time member of the World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM), 10 years ago she became one of its oblates, who strive to live according to the guidelines set out in the Rule of St Benedict, written 1500 years ago. Here she reflects on her journey towards discovering her True Self, and the fruits of a life centred in meditation and monastic wisdom.
Born in the 5th century, Saint Benedict has had a profound impact on Western civilisation. His philosophy, outlined in his Rule of Life, is suffused with practical wisdom for daily living, and rests on a deep and meditative engagement with Scripture. As John Stewart* reflects, in the wake of Saint Benedict’s feast day on 11 July, the Rule has a powerful application which is just as relevant in the 21st century.
Loving attention to nature can teach us much about God, and ourselves, reflects Benedictine monk Br. John Mayhead. A keen birdwatcher and gardener, with an ‘obsession’ for natural history, Br. John has been a monk at the Monastery of Christ Our Saviour, Turvey, in Bedfordshire, England, since 1991.
Songwriter and visual artist John Coleman reflects on how he has found inspiration, as well as the inner freedom, joy and knowledge of his ‘better self’, through an ancient form of meditation called Lectio Divina*, by practising silent prayer, and by sharing life in community with people with and without learning disabilities. He lives by the sea in southeast Tasmania.
The primary lesson to learn in life is to love. This was one of the many profound insights that Eileen Caddy (1917-2006) received in her daily meditations. Through an inner voice, she believed that God was guiding her in her co-founding of the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland in the 1960s, a community whose vision is to “radically transform the world” through teaching and embodying the core principles of deep inner listening, co-creation with nature, and work as love in action.
Australian feminist, author and journalist Julia Baird says it is not easy to maintain faith, especially for women and members of the LGBTQI community. But her faith endures, she says, because she has a sense of God as ‘large, expansive, forgiving, infinite, and both incomprehensible and intimate.’ Author and retired bishop Graeme Rutherford* reflects on her use of the word ‘phosphorescence’, which is also the title of her recent book, and how it has illuminated his understanding of faith, contemplation, St Paul and 20th century mystic Thomas Merton.
If we’re to act in a way that observes the Earth’s limits and boundaries, then we must undergo a ‘metanoia’ – a deep spiritual transformation. This involves a radical turn-around in the way we think and live, which a practice like meditation can help to enable. So argues theologian and long-time meditator Dr Deborah Guess, who believes that making ‘greentech’ changes such as solar panels and electric cars is not going to be enough, and may even be part of the much wider problem that our economic system is geared towards producing and consuming more and more.
Anglican priest Linda Chapman lives on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, which was devastated in the mega-fires which swept through the area in the Black Summer of 2019-2020. She reflects on this in the light of a recent encounter with a type of hawk – a Goshawk - and what it can teach us about the necessity of contemplative consciousness, if we are to heed the warnings of the latest IPCC Synthesis report into climate change.
Love is stronger than death. That is the hope that Christians celebrate at Easter, in their belief that the Spirit of Christ lives on, and is present to each one of us, whether we are aware of it or not. And that this ‘Christ Consciousness’ or ‘Christ mind’ can be found at the centre of our being, particularly in times of prayer and meditation.
The first anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine was reached in February. No direct dialogue has yet been established between the warring parties. Just more hostility. More weapons, always more weapons, and therefore more dead people. Bishop Philip Huggins reflects on the cost of militarism, and why humanity needs to tap into an ancient contemplative wisdom if it is to have a peaceful future.
Contemplation leads us beyond the egoic temptation to run life on our terms, says Sarah Bachelard. And it draws us, she says, towards the possibility of sharing in the very relationship with God that Jesus knew – a relationship ultimately of communion or at-onement, God’s life living itself in ours, God’s love flowing out through ours. Dr Bachelard made the comments in her launch of a new book by Dr Kerrie Hide: Love’s Oneing: A Book About Contemplation, on 25 February, as part of a sermon which follows.
Wisdom is not about cleverness, but the integration of our wounds, says Sarah Bachelard. In the following homily, which was given at the service for the opening of the Australian Parliament on 6 February 2023, Dr Bachelard* invited the parliamentarians, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, to respond to Australia’s first nations people, and their heartbreak, borne out of a long and continuous suffering, with a wisdom that comes from the heart. This year Australia is due to hold a referendum on whether a First Nations Voice to parliament should be enshrined in the constitution. The Voice proposal was part of the Uluru Statement of the Heart, a profound cry from the heart, produced in 2017 by a convention of 250 representatives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
While recent catastrophic flooding in Australia and other parts of the world has reminded us of the ravages that water can wreak, water also has a profoundly sacred quality. Author and teacher Ann Rennie reflects on why for her water is not just holy, but also a symbol of being part of something “mysterious and magisterial”, a great flowing river of time and tradition which looks towards eternity.
Suffering, for many, is one of the greatest stumbling blocks to faith. But for the Christian mystics, it is a way of entering into the suffering of Christ and transforming our attitude to the suffering of others. Roland Ashby reflects.
As our hearts cry out for peace in Ukraine and throughout the world this Christmas, we recall with even greater poignancy the coming of the Prince of Peace. For peace, joy and love are at the heart of Christ’s birth, and celebrated in this painting of Mary and Jesus by Sister Maria van Galen*.
The season of Advent invites us to make room for Christ in the ‘inn of our heart’. The Rev’d Linda Chapman* reflects on how, through meditation, we can abide in love, and partner with God in bringing Christ to birth in the here and now.
COP 27, meeting in Egypt, has again reminded us that we are in the midst of a profound ecological crisis. But as Douglas E. Christie’s book The Blue Sapphire of the Mind – Notes for a Contemplative Ecology shows, we can learn much from the desert spirituality of the 3rd and 4th centuries - which developed in the deserts of Egypt, Palestine and Syria - in facing the crisis. The Christians – the ammas and abbas - who sought refuge in the desert at this time hoped to become “healers” of the world, and to “re-inhabit paradise”, by nurturing and living out of simple awareness and compassion. Janet Galos and Judith Keller reflect on a thought-provoking and wide-ranging book, and how the wisdom of the desert tradition can be applied today.
Like Jesus, in becoming a ‘holy fool’, St Francis subverts the illusions we live by. Dr Frances MacKay* reflects on how a young man rejected wealth and status by stripping naked, going on to live joyfully in simplicity and poverty, care for the outcast, and experience nature as a place of divine encounter. She explores how the 'holy fool' archetype might help us understand not only St Francis’ calling but also our own.
The great English mystic Julian of Norwich (1342-1418) lived at a time of pandemic and war, a time of enormous suffering and anxiety similar to our own, yet she received a profound vision of God in which she saw that “Love was his meaning”, “all shall be well”, and “Peace and love are always in us, living and working”. The Rev’d Philip Carter* pays tribute to a remarkable woman and her book Revelations of Divine Love, which was the first to be written in English by a woman.
The new physics has opened the door to a new vision of reality in which the physical, psychological and spiritual are interdependent and interrelated. This expanded consciousness also allows for the possibility that the Christ-Consciousness, a powerful cosmic force of love and wisdom, is drawing humanity into the hidden mystery of the Absolute, the Godhead, a communion of love which Jesus embodied. Meditation and mindfulness teacher Lydia Dyhin* reflects.
Roland Ashby, Contributing Editor of Living Water, reflects on St Teresa of Avila’s understanding of prayer, in which God’s love is always available to us in abundance. She says that growing union with this love, if we let it, can transform the soul from a silkworm into a butterfly, and transport us into a life of true freedom.
Contributing Editor of Living Water, Roland Ashby, reflects on his own recent experience of confronting his mortality, and how this relates to what Spanish mystic St John of the Cross termed the “dark night of the soul”. Through this “dark night” God is encountered as passionate, intimate lover who seeks to liberate us to live in true freedom, in the fullness of love.
Winter is a time of special consolations, including space for more interiority, reflects author and teacher Ann Rennie. Living in Melbourne, Australia, which is now in its final weeks of winter, she writes that winter is a time for the slow joys of poetry, letting go of the detritus of our lives, and looking forward to new beginnings.
14th century Sufi poet Hafiz invites us to be the love for others that we wish they would be for us. Author and founder of Benedictus Contemplative Church, Dr Sarah Bachelard, reflects on Hafiz’s poem With That Moon Language*, and also that if we are truly to live by Christ’s injunction to love others as we love ourselves, then we must let ourselves be loved by God, and receive the life God longs to bestow on us.
In October, the Australian Government, for the first time, will deliver a ‘well-being budget’. In so doing, Australia will join other countries including Bhutan, Iceland, Finland and New Zealand in recognising that economics alone is not an adequate measure of a nation’s well-being. German mystic Meister Eckhart (c.1260-1328) would approve. In the last posting on Living Water, the Rev’d John Stewart summarised Eckhart’s teachings*. Here he draws on Matthew Fox’s book Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior for our Times to distil some of Eckhart’s wisdom in the fields of ecumenism, economics, ecology and education.
The 13th-14th Century German mystic Meister Eckhart has been described as ‘the man from whom God hid nothing.’ The Rev’d John Stewart, Co-Director of the Living Well Centre for Christian Spirituality* in Melbourne, Australia, explores how Eckhart’s fourfold path of spirituality can lead to God continually being reborn in us so that we can carry on God’s work of re-creation.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the Children of God,” Jesus said. But how can we be makers of authentic peace in a world so riven by conflict and violence? Author, priest and long-time meditator, Dr Sarah Bachelard*, considers one of the most urgent questions of our time in the light of a new book, Practicing[1] Peace: Theology, Contemplation, and Action, by Michael Wood.
Since childhood, retired Anglican priest Ron Browning OAM has lived with hidden doubts about an afterlife. But two years ago these doubts were brought into sharp focus when he was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. His journey into the Dark Night of the Soul has been a journey of naked trust which has brought pain and loss, but also profound insight into how Christ’s mystical love can be a bridge into the next life.
The times are such that they demand that each of us find our inner prophet, says one of the great prophets of our age, Benedictine nun Joan Chittister. In her recent book, The Time is Now – A Call to Uncommon Courage, she quotes the late Jesuit priest and prophet Daniel Berrigan, who spoke out against the Vietnam War: “The prophet is one who speaks the truth to a culture of lies.”
As Australia heads towards a federal election on 21 May, I am daily reminded of western culture’s urgent need for a deep wisdom arising out of a contemplative consciousness. During this election campaign, as in previous campaigns, the political discourse has largely been reduced to slogans and sound bites, shaped by advertising/PR agencies and focus groups, and there has been very little discussion of some of the underlying challenges facing Australians, and indeed humanity globally.
Traumatised by the brutal Russian destruction of life and homes, a Ukrainian woman cried out through her tears, “What sort of God would allow this to happen?”
As we celebrate Easter day, what meaning does resurrection have for our lives? Dr Cath Connelly, author and co-director of the Living Well Centre for Christian Spirituality* reflects on how the Celtic saints, and in particular St Gobnait, inspired us to have the faith and courage to launch out into the unknown to find our “place of resurrection”: a place where our spirit is most alive, and where our “deepest gladness meets with the world’s greatest hunger”.
Christians are called to a life of simplicity because they believe that human beings are made in the image of God, former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams said recently. “That means that as we learn simplicity in our lives we are engaged in rediscovering, re-entering our gifted existence as God’s image,” he said.
When retired social worker Rosslyn Lam* was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer she became overwhelmed with grief. But her fear of dying slowly fell away. She explains why.
The liminal state is a threshold, a door which opens out onto a new way of being, seeing or understanding. Author and teacher Ann Rennie reflects on how liminal moments have enabled her to expand her consciousness and touch the sacred, as portals “to the other side of self”.
Can meditation have any effect in a time of war? Author and long-time Christian meditator Dr Noel Keating* believes it can. By opening themselves to the compassionate love of God, he believes meditators can bring compassion to the world, touching people in ways we cannot understand intellectually.
With floods again devastating parts of Queensland and New South Wales in Australia, we are seeing yet more evidence of climate change. Apart from war, climate change is the greatest threat to the future of the planet, to which the latest report from the IPCC*, released this week, attests. Long-time Christian meditator Roger Layet* says that if the planet is to have a sustainable future, then human beings must develop a contemplative way of seeing which understands that we are part of nature, not apart from it. Meditation, he says, can help us overcome the illusion of separation from nature and one another, and help us realise our essential oneness.
Laurence Freeman, a Benedictine monk and Director of the World Community for Christian Meditation, made the following statement of solidarity with the people of Ukraine on February 24th, and called on meditators worldwide to join him for an online meditation event on March 26th as an expression of their love and support, and for ‘decency and justice in the world order’.
From the age of five, author Paul Mitchell had a morbid fear of death until, when he was 20, a theology of rapture (that at the end of time the ‘saved’ will fly up into the clouds and meet Jesus ‘in the middle of the air’) and conversion to Christianity allayed his fears. Now, over 30 years later, he finds solace in poetry and contemplative prayer, and through them explores mortality, how to live authentically and in a way that is life-giving.
I swung open the double doors to the back deck and there he was – just right there! It was an entirely unexpected but certainly not unwelcome visit – so I promptly put a chair out for him.
In November 2018, I had the privilege of being with my mother as she approached her last breath. In the week before her death and for a few days afterwards, I experienced one of the most intense spiritual times I have ever known. I felt like I was learning so much about the deeper dimension of life and this critical moment in life, which is physical death, as I watched and interacted with my mother.
I am eternally grateful to Thich Nhat Hahn, the Vietnamese Zen master who died on 22 January at the age of 95. His simple meditation practices have greatly enriched my understanding of my own Christian faith.
As we limp, COVID-weary, into the New Year, fearful of what the future may hold, the little flame of hope for humanity and the planet still flickers – but only just.
But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. Luke 2:19
What a night! A journey, an arrival, a birth, angels and shepherds, and much, much more. But in the midst of it all, Mary seems to have a contemplative heart; treasuring the words of the angels and the shepherds, and pondering them.
If we fail to see that life is so much more than how it can appear in everyday life, then we can miss its wonder and beauty. Author Michael McGirr reflects on how Advent and Christmas invite us to see the world as God sees it.
Patricia Lyne, who lives in Ireland, reflects on how both Zen practice and her Christian faith helped her to find the love, courage and strength she needed to support her through the vulnerability and pain of living with cancer and its treatment.
The story of the yet unborn John the Baptist ‘leaping for joy’ in Elizabeth’s womb when Mary, pregnant with Jesus, visits her, (Luke 1:41) can touch us deeply as we enter the season of Advent. This is the time of invitation to let our hearts be softened and ‘leap for joy’ as we prepare to celebrate the coming of Jesus into the world.
A crow contemplating the autumn sunrise raises the question: Do animals sense wonder and awe? Patrick Gormally, a retired university professor who now volunteers as a Catholic Prison Chaplain in France, reflects.
The climate emergency, at its heart, is a spiritual emergency. Unless we learn to fall in love with the wonder and beauty of the Earth, and no longer see it simply as a resource to be exploited, then the outlook seems bleak. As the world’s Indigenous peoples and wisdom traditions have also known for millennia, recognising the deep interconnectedness and mutual dependence of all life is also critical to our future. UK author and long-time meditator Jim Green has developed a new online course, ‘Contemplating Earth’,* which argues that it is in opening to the contemplative consciousness that unites each of us with one another and with the Earth itself that we will learn, in the depths of our shared being, how to act wisely and to live well for the good of all. The following is the introduction to the course.
The COP26 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (31 October – 12 November) is widely regarded as humanity’s last chance to prevent catastrophic global warming. Australia has been described as the ‘canary in the coal mine’. In 2020, devastating bushfires swept through many parts of the country, including along the Eastern seaboard of New South Wales and Victoria, where Anglican priest Linda Chapman* lives. Here she reflects on her experience of the mega-fire that was powerfully symbolised by the image of an iron cross burnt into the ground, the only remains of a wooden church in Cadgee in New South Wales (see picture). The earth is undergoing a crucifixion, she says, and humanity needs to undergo a transfiguration through a contemplative consciousness that leads to a courageous love for the common good.
In meditation we discover that we are loved, and that this love is the source and ground of our being, writes long-time meditator, educator and author *Dr Noel Keating. This is Part II of his article expounding the teaching of Benedictine monk John Main, by reflecting on the prayer he wrote for meditators to pray before meditating: ‘Heavenly Father, Open our hearts to the silent Presence of the Spirit of your Son. Lead us into that mysterious Silence where Your Love is revealed to all who call.’ It was John Main’s life and teaching which inspired the formation of the World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM) in 1991. See Part I of Dr Keating’s article here: https://www.thelivingwater.com.au/blog/meditation-like-sunlight-unfolding-a-flower
Meditation opens the human heart as naturally as sunlight gives rise to the unfolding of a flower. So believed Benedictine monk John Main, whose life and teaching inspired the formation of the World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM) in 1991. Long-time meditator, educator and author Dr Noel Keating* here expounds John Main’s teaching through reflecting on the prayer he wrote for meditators to pray before meditating.
Archbishop Emeritus and Nobel Peace Laureate Desmond Tutu turned 90 on 7 October. His version of Christianity allows us no place to hide, particularly when it comes to forgiveness, something he has found at great personal cost. Writer and author *Michael McGirr pays tribute to one of the great spirits of our age.
After Julie Roberts’ 19 year old son was killed crossing the road, her understanding of gratitude for life changed profoundly. A long-time meditator*, Julie reflects on gratitude as a discipline, and that even bad things do not happen outside God’s loving presence.
I’m writing from the midst of another lockdown in Melbourne Australia, in response to COVID19. What we’re going through has been compared to prisoners and asylum-seekers’ experiences, and often we and those in Sydney and New South Wales have been encouraged to empathise with their plight. Our time shut away, especially for those of us who live with others, has also been compared to life as a monk or nun.
Suffering, betrayal and nastiness are not forgiven through our own willpower, argues Patrick Gormally. A retired university professor and Head of Department of Romance Languages at the National University of Ireland, he is now a volunteer Catholic Prison Chaplain in France.
Behold, I bring you good tidings! (Luke 2:10)
“The glory of God is a human being fully alive; and to be alive consists in beholding God.” So said St Irenaeus in the second century.
While the first part of the quotation, “The glory of God is a human being fully alive” is often quoted, the second part, which makes clear that being alive is conditional upon beholding God, is often ignored. Perhaps because it is not understood.
Before having a powerful conversion experience when he was younger, Australian writer and poet Paul Mitchell says he couldn’t have cared less about the Church and the creeds. Then the God within him sang, a tune to which he keeps returning, and that rings out through the decades.
Forgiveness is a virtue “with which I struggle most profoundly” confesses Dr Hugh Kempster. Vicar of St Peter’s Eastern Hill in Melbourne, Australia, he reflects that ultimately human efforts at forgiveness are left wanting, and the power to forgive is a gift.
Prayer isn’t a shopping list, it’s about a relationship with ‘the great loving heart beating at the centre of the universe, the power for love that fuels all that is good in the world’, reflects writer and author Clare Boyd-Macrae.
Our image of what or who ‘God’ is can so often be merely human projection, severely limiting our understanding of the Divine. This can prevent us from being open to experiencing Divine reality, and what it truly is, which in turn means we are unlikely to plumb the depths of our full humanity. For writer and author Clare Boyd-Macrae this question reached a crisis point when prayer began to feel ‘like a waste of time’.
“We must hurry” in tackling climate change, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said this week. She was speaking in the aftermath of catastrophic floods in Germany, literally sweeping away lives, homes and livelihoods. Listening to some of the shocked and traumatised survivors was heartbreaking.
Biologist and author Rupert Sheldrake, a former Fellow of Clare College Cambridge, believes that being completely present in sport is to enter the joy, energy and flow of the Holy Spirit. Once an atheist, Dr Sheldrake returned to the Christian faith after living in a Christian ashram in India. The following is an edited extract from a talk* he gave on 20 May about his most recent books: ‘Science and Spiritual Practices’ and ‘Ways to Go Beyond and Why They Work’.
“The world is so full of magic and surprises”, says Dr Jane Goodall, DBE, who was recently awarded the prestigious 2021 Templeton Prize. This was given to celebrate “her scientific and spiritual curiosity” and in recognition of “her unrelenting effort to connect humanity to a greater purpose”.
A little bird trapped behind a wire mesh is a poignant metaphor for those in prison, as well as those imprisoned by fear, illness or despair, reflects Patrick Gormally. A volunteer Catholic Prison Chaplain, he is a retired university professor and Head of Department of Romance Languages. He and his wife Marie-Cécile live in an Old Rectory in New Aquitaine, south western France.
American poet Mary Oliver (1935-2019), who won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, found God through being truly present, particularly to the natural world, and in the compassion, love, wonder and gratitude she experienced as a result. *Dr Cath Connelly celebrates one of the great poets of our time, who challenges us with the question: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?”
“The fate of poetry is to fall in love with the world in spite of history”, said Caribbean Poet Derek Walcott. I would go further: the fate of humanity must be to fall in love with the world in spite of history.
An extraordinary and life-changing spiritual experience when he was a young man shaped the rest of Bruno Barnhart’s life. It led the Californian Camaldolese Benedictine Monk, who died in 2015, to devote his life’s work to recovering and re-conceiving Christian wisdom today, centred on and emanating from the one great revolutionary event of the Cross. Dr Chris Morris, who completed a PhD* on Barnhart in 2020, explains why he has found Barnhart’s ideas “compelling and endlessly engaging”.
Solving the problem of climate change requires more than the development of technology, it needs the ancient wisdom of paying attention. This is Part II of an article by eco-theologian Dr Deborah Guess.*
Solving the problem of climate change requires more than the development of technology, it needs the ancient wisdom of paying attention, argues ecological theologian Dr Deborah Guess.
As Australians come out of lockdown and life returns to normal, there is a temptation to resume all our pre-COVID activity and social engagement. But we should not be in too much of a rush to escape solitude, as it can be a source of great blessing and spiritual growth.
The most important reason for a contemplative practice like meditation or mindfulness is that it taps into what author Maggie Ross has described as “deep mind”, a deep spring of love and compassion. Jesus called it “living water”. Thomas Aquinas said God is compassion, and that “Compassion is the fire that Jesus came to set on the earth”.
“We have got to the point where a soundless world has practically ceased to exist, and we are the poorer for it,” writes Cistercian monk and author Michael Casey in Balaam’s Donkey. “Recently I have read several accounts written by brave adventurers who have put aside their electronic devices for an hour, a day, or even a week and been astonished to discover the richness of a life without incessant interruptions and noise.”
One of Christianity’s most radical demands is that we are not merely to tolerate those we find difficult, but actually love them. No wonder the Catholic writer and philosopher GK Chesterton observed: “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.”
At Easter we celebrate Resurrection and liberation from the fear of death – something we can experience through meditation by transcending the constant cycle of the death and rebirth of our thoughts, and abiding in what is eternal, says Benedictine monk Fr Laurence Freeman. He is also Director of the World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM) and author of many books on meditation including Jesus the Teacher Within (Continuum, 2001), Light Within (Canterbury Press Norwich 2008) and First Sight – the Experience of Faith (Continuum 2011). This interview with Roland Ashby, which first appeared in 2002*, is reproduced here to mark WCCM’s 30th anniversary, which occurs this year.
The mystical branch of Islam – Sufism – has produced one of the world’s great mystics: the 13th century Persian poet Rumi. His prayer calling for the Beloved to set him free by dragging him into the gang of those crazy with the ecstasy of love, provides a profound insight into Christ and the meaning of Easter.
Meditation is not about having “nice experiences” or becoming more “effective” in whatever we do, but about “aligning ourselves with the Real and the True”, former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said on 9 February. He was speaking via zoom on the theme of ‘Meditation – with or without expectations’ as part of a monthly series of talks organised by the Bonnevaux Centre for Peace, the international home of the World Community for Christian Meditation in France.
If the world is to be saved then human consciousness must undergo a radical transformation, argues Indian-born author, teacher and mystic Andrew Harvey. He spoke to Roland Ashby about humanity’s exploitation of nature and addiction to greed, and how this ‘global dark night’ is a wake-up call to bring to birth a new consciousness.
What’s not wrong? This is a question each of us needs to ask daily, particularly in light of the human tendency towards what psychology calls ‘negativity bias’, a tendency to focus on, and remember the bad rather than the good.
After studying theology at Oxford, Dr Sarah Bachelard left the church. But then she encountered Christian meditation, which she says took her out of her head and into her heart. She went on to become an Anglican priest, and in 2012 began a new church in Canberra – Benedictus Contemplative Church, which incorporates silent meditation into its services. She spoke to Roland Ashby about her spiritual journey and her latest book A Contemplative Christianity for Our Time. You can watch the full interview here: https://youtu.be/nXqK3KU8Lzk or read an edited transcript below.
That the universe is ordered, and that such order can be perceived, and its inner structures imagined, has profound theological significance, according to theoretical physicist Dr Tom McLeish, Fellow of the Royal Society and Inaugural Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of York in England. Professor McLeish, a Christian, whose recent books include Faith and Wisdom in Science (OUP 2014) and The Poetry and Music of Science (OUP 2019), here argues that the ‘conflict’ between science and faith is an invented illusion that melts away when the history and present experience of scientific imagination are considered seriously.
UK author and long-time meditator Jim Green has worked for many years in the field of mental health, including at the Open University and the BBC. Here, in this extract from his latest book Giving Up without Giving Up – Meditation and Depressions, he draws on his extensive experience in both the Buddhist and Christian traditions to explore the relationship between Zen Buddhism and Christian meditation, and how meditation can be both crucifixion and resurrection, especially for those suffering from depression.
In our polarised culture, when opposing sides can be so self-righteously entrenched in their views that reconciliation seems impossible, Dr Sarah Bachelard argues that hope can be found through meditation. It offers, she says, a transformative encounter in which the essential dignity of every person, even the perceived enemy, is revealed. Dr Bachelard, whose latest book is ‘A Contemplative Christianity for Our Time’, is the founder of Benedictus Contemplative Church, in Canberra, Australia.
Congratulations to Indigenous elder, artist and educator Dr Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann AM for being named the 2021 Senior Australian of the Year. Apart from her artwork, and work in education, she is perhaps best known for her reflections on dadirri – “inner, deep listening and quiet, still awareness”. Dadirri, she says, “is perhaps the greatest gift [Aboriginal Australians] can give to our fellow Australians... dadirri recognises the deep spring that is inside us. We call on it and it calls to us. This is the gift that Australia is thirsting for. It is something like what you call ‘contemplation’”. The following reflection on dadirri, which is a speech she gave in 2002 when she was Principal of a Catholic primary school in Daly River in the Northern Territory, also seeks to integrate dadirri with her faith as a Christian.
President Biden faces enormous challenges: not just COVID-19, climate change, racial injustice, and social and economic inequality, but also a deep sickness of pandemic proportions - the fear and loathing of closed hearts and minds. Not something that can easily be legislated against!
After a year of COVID-19, and what has felt like a long Advent of waiting and longing, “heart-sick with hope deferred”, it’s time to remember that “Love was born at Christmas”. Carol O’Connor* reflects on how the poetry of 19th century English poet Christina Rossetti can speak to us afresh at this time, and help us come alive to what is most precious and dear.
The world is at a point of crisis, but author and Anglican priest Dr Sarah Bachelard* believes a deeper knowing of truth is slowly arising. This is a heart-knowing, a tuning in at the level of Spirit, she says, a coming of the Light into our darkness, turmoil and confusion.
Meditation connects us to a deeper sense of what it is to be human and to be in connection with others, writes author and retreat leader Dr Stefan Gillow Reynolds.* For this reason, he says meditation offers a bigger vision of work, and the possibilities that come from letting-go of ourselves and opening to ‘dynamic goodness and compassion in action’, something particularly important in a time of pandemic.
Before Dorothy Day became the politically radical editor of the US newspaper The Catholic Worker, she was an atheist and a communist. She became pregnant during this time, and, theologian Matthew Fox says, “she was so overcome by the beauty of bearing a new living being inside her that she converted to Christianity. Why? ‘Because I had to give thanks to someone’, she said. God is the One to whom we render our thanks.”
Times are dire, but the Christian hope is that God is not just with us and for us, but also ahead of us. Advent, which started on Sunday, is a time of holding on to this hope, a space in which we are invited to be transformed, and begin to dream about and create a future that is of love, writes Dr Cath Connelly. Dr Connelly is author of Handbook of Hope: Emerging Stories Beyond a Disintegrating World and co-director of the Living Well Centre for Christian Spirituality*.
For Anglican priest Dr Colleen O’Reilly, who is chaplain to Trinity College at the University of Melbourne, Australia, reading Henri Nouwen’s ‘Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life’, first published in 1975, was a turning point, leading her to a “reaching inwards of the kind that transforms”, and into a relationship with God “which becomes the great adventure... that defies our predictions and calculations”. Nouwen, (1932-1996), a Dutch catholic priest and theologian with a particular interest in psychology, was one of the greatest spiritual writers of the 20th century.
Roslyn Harper has had a deep spiritual inner longing from the age of five, but it is only recently that she has found a contemplative church service that provides “balm for her thirsty soul”. Here Roslyn, who lives in Melbourne, Australia, reflects on her life’s spiritual journey, including a life-changing mystical experience at the age of 33, and how, when she was a teenager, she saw the words LOVE, JOY, PEACE on a sticker, her heart yearned to know what they meant. And even though as an adult outwardly she had the perfect life, inwardly she knew something was missing.
Quantum physics suggests we are all part of one great universal consciousness, which brings about reality, and in which all matter originates and is sustained. The Rev’d Don McGregor, author, retired Anglican Priest and former science teacher, argues that this new scientific understanding supports the Christian view of God as the compassionate consciousness from which everything emanates and which holds everything in being, and that we can awaken to this through meditation. This is the sequel to his earlier Living Water article ‘A new era dawns as mystical and scientific insights converge’.
The world is “in a place of tremendous crisis... [and of] incredible ignorance, compared to the truth that the mystical life has been trying to share over the centuries,” believed one of the greatest spiritual teachers of our time, Trappist monk Fr Thomas Keating OCSO. However, he also believed it is a time of tremendous opportunity, because “we are on the edge of another axial period,” moving to a higher, reflective consciousness “that leads us ultimately into divine consciousness”, and becoming one with an “ocean of love”. In this interview, one of the last he gave before his death in October 2018, he talks to author, psychotherapist and teacher of meditation, Loch Kelly. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAy2X-8vgrM
World-renowned naturalist Sir David Attenborough has recently warned that “we are facing a man-made [environmental] disaster of global scale”. However, if we are to effectively confront the causes of the crisis, then a new consciousness needs to emerge which meditation provides, argues eco-theologian and long-time meditator Dr Deborah Guess*.
COVID-19 has imposed solitude on many, but Anglican solitary Maggie Ross has chosen this as a way of life. From the age of five, she knew she was destined to live a life “preoccupied with God”. Now 79 and living in Oxford under vows to former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, she spoke to Roland Ashby before the pandemic about her two profound and magisterial books on silence,* and what she calls “deep mind” and the “beholding” of God.
Anglican priest, theologian and author Dr Sarah Bachelard*, who studied under Rowan Williams at Oxford University, leads a new ecumenical church community — Benedictus Contemplative Church — which seeks to be a blessing to the world around it. A leading member of the World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM) and keynote speaker at the WCCM’s annual John Main Seminar in Vancouver in August 2019, she reflects on what it means to be a church committed to transformation through the practice of silent meditation.
Humanity is at the beginning of a great awakening as new science catches up with the ancient wisdom of the mystics: that we are all part of the One Consciousness which holds everything in being, permeates everything and is the Oneness ‘in which we live and move and have our being’. So argues the Rev’d Don MacGregor, retired Anglican Priest, former science teacher, and author of ‘Blue Sky God: the Evolution of Science and Christianity.’
“The waters of life run deep at Bonnevaux” says Episcopal priest and retired school chaplain The Rev’d Dr Mary Katherine Allman. Here she reflects on how life in a community which seeks to live contemplatively, close to nature and under the guidance of the Rule of St Benedict, brings inner healing and the blessings of kindness, patience and slowness to judge. Bonnevaux, the international retreat centre of the World Community for Christian Meditation, near Poitiers in France, has a residential community which Dr Allman joined in January 2019.
We all carry woundedness within us.
This thought has come into sharper focus for me over these last few months, spending, as we all have, much time in solitude and isolation imposed by COVID-19. Spiritual writer Eckhart Tolle calls our woundedness, our accumulated hurts, the “pain body”, which can have a crippling effect on our lives, and adversely affect those with whom we live, unless we can learn to let go and forgive.
Liz Watson* has been meditating for over 25 years. Here she reflects on how meditation can transform our everyday lives, and has awakened her to the gift of grace, particularly in times of struggle and pain, including the death of her husband Graeme earlier in the year.
The universe exists for the sake of joy. So believed Thomas Aquinas, Dominican polymath and one of the Church’s greatest theologians, according to US author and scholar The Reverend Dr Matthew Fox. In this zoom video, Dr Fox, a former Dominican and now Anglican priest who has spent a lifetime studying Aquinas and translating his works, speaks to Roland Ashby about his latest book.
For several months now I have been waking up in the morning feeling slightly depressed. The solitude imposed by COVID-19 has created more opportunities for negative thoughts to arise, and what seemed to be safely buried in the past - mistakes and failures and humiliations, as well as hurts (both given and received) – suddenly reappear as if they happened yesterday - with all the freshness and immediacy, and therefore pain, that that entails.
As I struggle to come to terms with Melbourne’s second lockdown, I am starting to look at our family dog Bessie with new, and envious, eyes. Her simple joy in life has not wavered throughout the pandemic. Each morning she greets me with gusto as she gleefully anticipates her first walk of the day. Each day, it seems, offers a new banquet of olfactory delights. And surely that’s a smile I discern as she leaps through long grass, or frolics in fresh puddles.
One of the most shocking aspects of the brutal treatment by police towards George Floyd, which caused his death, was that it was so brazen, and so calmly and routinely carried out. This suggests a fundamental and intrinsic problem of the police seeing him as less than human. Hence the resurgence, and necessity, of the Black Lives Matter campaign.
Statements by British PM Boris Johnson about his recent brush with death suggest he may have undergone something of a spiritual awakening. This would not surprise St Benedict, sometimes described as the father of Western monasticism, who in the sixth century advised his monks to “Always keep death before you”.
This is a time of lament. Many have lost lives and livelihoods. Jesus gave voice to such despair most poignantly on the cross when he cried out: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”, the opening words of Psalm 22.
The coronavirus pandemic has led to much suffering, hardship and anxiety, but it has also been a time of reawakening and rebirth. This is what Easter is all about. Lent, traditionally a time of fasting which prepares Christians for the new life and joy of Easter Sunday, offers rich insights into the solitude and privations imposed on us by the virus.