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 – 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.
Refusing to let hate have the last word
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.
Being grateful for life, even in dark times
The Home Monastery
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.
Only through grace can we forgive
‘Beholding’ – when ‘deep calls unto deep’ and joy leaps in the heart
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.
Giving voice to the God who sings within
We need to forgive and be forgiven ‘every day, every hour – unceasingly’
Prayer – breathing in the power of love at the heart of life
Getting the ‘old white man’ out of our hearts
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’.
‘Ecological conversion’ needed to avoid climate disaster
Sport - our most common form of spiritual practice
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’.
Jane Goodall on finding ‘a great spiritual power’ in the forests of Gombe
The bird and the wire mesh
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.
Finding God by attending to the miracle of creation
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?”
For the world’s sake, we must hold fast to the ‘little piece of God’ in us
A revolution in wisdom vital for our time
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”.