The Christian Invitation

 

Our True Nature

 

Our Growth in Love

 

True Silence

 

Union with Christ

 

Obedience....

 

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Being, not thinking....

Words of Wisdom

Oh God, we are one with You.

Palm Sunday 2020

Belmar, NJ Weekly Meditation Group

“Adapt yourselves no longer to the pattern of this present world, but let your minds be remade and your whole nature thus transformed” (Romans 12:2).

The life of the spirit in human nature is a continual repatterning. The step of faith we spend our lives perfecting is simply the one step by which we let our minds be remade and our whole being transfigured. For “this present world” let us read "ego": the part that thinks it is the whole. It has come involuntarily to block and unconsciously to distort the mystery of life because of the patterns it had formed through pain and rejection; the perception of a world without love. [. . . .]

Even if meditation were no more than a brief daily dip into the kingdom within us, it would merit our complete attention. But it is far more than a temporary escape from the prison of our patterns of fear and desire. Complex as these patterns are, making us fear the death and the true love that are necessary for our growth and survival, meditation simplifies them all. Day by day, meditation by meditation, this process of simplification proceeds. We become gradually more fearless until, in the joy of being released from the images and memories of desire, we taste total freedom from fear. And then---and even before then---we become of use to others, able to love without fear or desire. . . released to serve the Self which is the Christ within.

-- An excerpt from Laurence Freeman OSB, “Letter Three,” WEB OF SILENCE (London: Darton, Longman, Todd, 1996), pp. 28-29,31.

Integration and Wholeness

“The experience of meditation is the experience of integration and wholeness. In the Christian tradition it’s called the ‘prayer of the heart.’ The heart is a symbol, not only of interiority, and it’s much more than just a symbol of emotions. The heart is really a symbol spiritually, in all traditions, of wholeness, of integrity, integration. It’s in the heart-consciousness that physical, mental, and spiritual dimensions of ourselves find unity, find harmony, and integration.” From Laurence Freeman OSB, Grace at Work: The Healing Power of Meditation (London: Medio Media). 

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Discipleship

“To be a disciple is to be on the way to becoming a Christian. We're not fully disciples yet, but we are on the way. We're on the way to becoming one with Christ, to becoming, as the early church describes it, ‘another christ’. Each one of us is ‘another christ’ because of that union we have with him. And this is a lifelong journey. We don't arrive at this point just on the day of our baptism; that's just the beginning of this journey. It's a lifelong journey, and the beautiful thing about this journey is that it gives meaning to everything that happens to us in our life – the joys and the sufferings, the things we gain and the things we lose. Everything is given meaning if our life has this purpose.” From Laurence Freeman OSB, “Discipleship.”

Relationship(s)

“Our eyes are opened, through meditation, to see how much [the] power of love is present in the midst of all our imbalance, all our own waywardness, all our own distractedness. Even in the distractedness of our meditation, we are able to understand, to perceive, to feel more and more deeply, the presence of peace. And what it teaches us also, as it teaches us to love ourselves, to love others and to love God, is that all relationships are really aspects of one relationship.” From Laurence Freeman OSB, “Aspects of Love.” 

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God loves us...

God loves us and in creating us, he has placed his presence within us, his Spirit within us. And this is our deepest human identity. It is the mystery of being human, that the Spirit of God is alive and moving in our hearts. But we forget that. We forget it because we become too busy, we become angry or greedy or because our ego takes over. We can forget the presence of God within us. And God has given us meditation. He has given this gift to every human being in order for us to remember, to re-connect, to rediscover every day, every moment, this mystery of what it is to be human, to be a temple of the Holy Spirit. This takes us to the universality of meditation.
Meditating as a Christian, Laurence Freeman OSB 2013 C 

Introductory Session

You're Invited! "Introductory Session"

“Christian Meditation: A Pathway to Peace” — The times we live in present challenges to peace on all fronts: in our personal lives, in our communities, and among nations. St. Rose parishioner Greg Ryan, author and Benedictine oblate, will offer an introduction to the ancient tradition and contemporary practice of Christian meditation, November 10 (10-11:30 a.m.). St. Rose parish center, 603 Seventh Ave., Belmar. Light refreshments. Free-will offering to benefit The World Community for Christian Meditation (www.WCCM-USA.org). Information: 732-681-6238 | GJRyan@optonline.net | WCCM-CentralNJ.blogspot.com

The Light of Christ

“The peculiar power of the light of Christ that it reveals to us reality as it is. Light is a form of energy that makes vision possible; the brighter the light the clearer the vision, the deeper the harmony. What we learn is that Christ is our light. The task of Christian meditation is simply to uncover the brilliance of the light of Christ in our own hearts.” From John Main, “The Way fo Enlightenment,” in Fully Alive (London: Canterbury Press, 2013), p.10.