Christian Meditation Groups
CHRISTIAN MEDITATION QUOTE: June 2020
“Meditation is to the spirit just the same as breathing is to the body.
If someone asked you ‘what is your motivation for breathing’, you would reply, ‘I have no motivation. It is necessary to breathe; it is
necessary for life. I have no conscious motivation for it at all.’ [When you begin you have to have some motivation but] the longer you meditate, the longer you experience your own spirit in peaceful
harmony with your body, your own spirit in peaceful harmony with all creation and with your Creator, you will realise you don’t need any motivation for meditating.
You meditate because you are, and because God is, because that is the structure of reality; God the Creator, myself a creature, alive
in God’s creation.
Meditation is simply the way to become wholly alive to all that….
Once you start to meditate you realise that you come to it without demands, without looking for a pay-off. We meditate simply because this is the only way that we can find that will lead us to this sense of wholeness, of oneness.” J
John Main: “In Times of Anxiety”, WCCM Meditatio Talks 2009C
The Christian Meditation Groups in the Parish of Stirling follow the teaching of the early Christian Desert Fathers and Mothers recovered for our time by John Main, a Benedictine monk, through the writings of 4th century John Cassian.
When John Main died, Laurence Freeman, also a Benedictine monk, established the World Community of Christian Meditation (WCCM) to continue the work of sharing Christian Meditation and supporting meditators.
Within WCCM there are 2700 meditation groups meeting weekly in 100 countries. In Australia we are called the Australian Christian Meditation Community. You can find out more on the international website www.wccm.org
WCCM is also on YouTube and Facebook. You can access Australian information and activities at www.christianmeditationaustralia.org.
Three of these groups are in our Parish. They currently meet at:
- 9am Monday
- 9am Wednesday and
- 4.30pm Sunday.
For more information contact Bev on 8339 2809
There are three Christian Meditation Groups in the Stirling Anglican Parish, meeting in private homes.
The members pray the silent contemplative prayer of the heart used in the Church since the beginning of Christianity.
John Main discovered this Christian form of meditation in the writings of the 4th century John Cassian on the Desert Fathers and Mothers in Egypt, the Abbas and Ammas, and recovered it as a practice for our own time.
The Christian Meditation Groups in the Parish are part of the Australian Christian Meditation Community in South Australia (ACMC-SA), which in turn is part of the World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM), formed to continue the work of John Main in bringing this way of prayer to the world.
For more information about Christian Meditation contact Bev Armstrong on 8339 2809 or visit the websites www.wccm.org and www.christianmeditationaustralia.org
For more information contact Bev on 8339 2809
HOW TO MEDITATE
Sit down.
Sit still and upright.
Close your eyes lightly.
Sit relaxed but alert.
Silently, interiorly begin to say a sacred word or phrase (the mantra), e.g. it may be Jesus or Abba.
We recommend ‘Maranatha’, Aramaic (the languageof Jesus) for “Come, Lord”, which was one of the earliest Christian prayers.
Say it as four equal syllables of equal length – “ma-ra-na-tha”.
It can be linked to your breathing if you like.
Listen to it as you say it, gently but continuously throughout the meditation.
Do not think or imagine anything – spiritual or otherwise.
If thoughts and images come, as they will, these are distractions at the time of meditation.
As you gently refocus on listening to the mantra they will slide away.
Meditate each morning and evening for between twenty and thirty minutes.
Be still and know that I am God
Be still and know that I am
Be still and know
Be still
Be
Christian Meditation is the inner journey to come into the presence of God, who in Spirit dwells at our centre. It is a form of prayer where we are simply being with God rather than thinking about God, talking to God or listening to God.
There are other times when we do that.
Meditation is the work we do to take us deep within so that we may contemplate God.
We reach various degrees of union with God depending on God’s grace and our ability to pay attention on any given day.
Like the game of golf, each meditation is a new beginning.
Those new to the game may score a hole-in-one and the seasoned professional may miss a 10cm putt. We encounter God’s presence in the eternal silence on which our mantra is superimposed.
In that silence we find peace, deep contentment and loving acceptance. God is still invisible to the physical senses but is recognised by the senses of the heart – by our spirit.
BENEFITS OF MEDITATION
When Christian Meditation is done as a twice daily discipline there are huge benefits both physically and spiritually.
Because of its benefits for lowering blood pressure, cholesterol, anxiety etc , these days people are just as likely to have meditation recommended to them by the medical profession as the church.
It may be that nothing much seems to happen during the meditation and any peace experienced is short-lived.
You may wonder why you are bothering to do it. But if you persevere you begin to notice that you are changing, especially in your relationships with other people.
You are becoming a calmer, more loving, kinder person. You begin to realize that as you place yourself regularly in the presence of the Holy Spirit, the fruits of the Spirit grow in you. And not just the ones listed in Galatians. You grow in courage.
There is also healing of the emotional wounds we all carry. Sometimes these hurts are brought to the surface but mostly the healing takes place without our knowing it.
For more information contact Bev on 8339 2809.