Christmas Presence

“Christmas is a feast that can open the hearts of all of us to the presence of Christ. It puts before us the great qualities of innocence and hope that we need if we are to awaken to his light, and it fills us with confidence because it tells us that the old age has ended. The new age, indeed the new creation, has begun and our point of departure for finding it everywhere is finding it a reality in our heart.” -- Fr John Main OSB

Radiating Joy

“The only way to deal with the complexity of human relations is to learn simply to love. We learn that love is the unifying force in every human relationship whether it is a relationship with those closest to us, or those who have hurt us . . .or the way we relate to humanity at large, to the down-and-out in the street or to the suffering we see daily in the media We learn that it is the same love that relates us to all of those. The only way to deal with the complexity of human relations is the simplicity of love. In love we do not judge, we do not compete; we accept, we revere, and we learn compassion. In learning to love others we release the inner joy of being that radiates outwards through us, touching others through our relationships. This is why communities, families, and marriages do not exist solely for the perfection of the people in those. . .relationships. They exist also to radiate love. . . .beyond themselves, radiating joy, that simplicity of love beyond themselves, to touch all those who come into contact with it.” From Laurence Freeman OSB, “Forgiveness and Compassion,” ASPECTS OF LOVE (London: Arthur James, 1997), pp. 72-74.

Liberation....

“Meditation is the work that harmonizes the usually discordant dimensions of consciousness. It reconciles contradictions and opposites. All traditions agree that its fruits are preferable to their opposites. These fruits need little definition or defense: compassion and wisdom, generosity and tolerance, forgiveness and kindness, gentleness and peace, joy and creativity. By liberating these qualities, meditation advances human goodness and wholeness." From Laurence Freeman OSB. “Meditation,” in JESUS THE TEACHER WITHIN (London: Continuum, 20000, p. 197-98.

Inner Peace

“Inner peace is hard to find at times of conflict and fear. We find it difficult to sit still when mind and feeling are in turmoil. It is easy to give up meditation at such times when it is most needed. So it helps to see that our meditation is not for ourselves alone. If it were, we are no more than religious consumers. The meaning of contemplation is found in its fruits, especially the love and service of others. When we have inner peace we go out to others in compassion. Lacking it all our out-going is subject to the ego's desire, anger and competitiveness. God is the love that casts out fear in our neighbor because, when we have truly met that love within ourselves, we can never do our neighbor harm." From Laurence Freeman OSB. "Dearest Friends," WCCM International Newsletter, Winter 2000.

Peace, Wisdom, Vistue

Inner peace is hard to find at times of conflict and fear. We find it difficult to sit still when mind and feeling are in turmoil. It is easy to give up meditation at such times when it is most needed. So it helps to see that our meditation is not for ourselves alone. If it were, we are no more than religious consumers. The meaning of contemplation is found in its fruits, especially the love and service of others. When we have inner peace we go out to others in compassion. Lacking it all our out-going is subject to the ego's desire, anger and competitiveness. God is the love that casts out fear in our neighbor because, when we have truly met that love within ourselves, we can never do our neighbor harm. 

Peace is not achieved by rooting out and destroying evil. When we become aware of our vices - anger, pride, greed, lust - the attempt to destroy them easily degenerates into self-hatred . . . Better than destroying your faults is to work patiently to implant virtue--a slower and less dramatic work but far more effective. [. . . .] The first step in implanting virtue that will eventually overpower the vices is to establish the foundational virtue of deep prayer. Through the silent rhythm of prayer, wisdom slowly penetrates our mind and our world. It is the universal power that brings good out of evil. As the book of Wisdom says, 'the hope for the salvation of the world lies in the greatest number of wise people.' The wise know the distinction between self-knowledge and self-fixation, between detachment and hardness of heart, between correction and cruelty. There are no rules for wisdom. Rules are never universal. But virtue is.

An excerpt from Laurence Freeman OSB. "Dearest Friends," WCCM International

Newsletter, Winter 2001.

Reality

In this wonderful process of coming into the full light of Reality, of falling away from illusion, a great silence emerges from the centre. We feel ourselves engulfed in the eternal silence of God. We are no longer talking to God or worse, talking to ourselves. We are learning to be –to be with God, to be in God. [. . . .] -- From John Main OSB, “The Christian Crisis,” THE PRESENT CHRIST (New York: Crossroad, 1991), pp. 74-76.

The Full Light of Reality

Yes, you can meditate in an airport.

[T]o become spiritual we have to learn to leave behind our official religious selves—that is, to leave behind the Pharisee that lurks inside all of us—because, as Jesus has told us, we have to leave behind our whole self. All images of ourselves coming as they do out of the fevered brain of the ego, have to be renounced and transcended if we are to become one with ourselves, with God, with our brethren—that is, to become truly human, truly real, truly humble. Our images of God must similarly fall away.  We must not be idol-worshippers. Curiously, what we find is that they fall away as our images of self fall away, which suggests what. . .we always guessed anyway, that our images of God were really images of ourselves.

In this wonderful process of coming into the full light of Reality, of falling away from illusion, a great silence emerges from the centre.  We feel ourselves engulfed in the eternal silence of God.  We are no longer talking to God or worse, talking to ourselves.  We are learning to be – to be with God, to be in God. [. . . .]

On the spiritual journey it takes more energy to be still than to run. [M]ost people spend so much of their waking hours rushing from one thing to another that they are afraid of stillness and of silence. A certain existential panic can overtake us when we first face the stillness. But if we can find the courage to face this silence, we enter into the peace that is beyond all understanding.

No doubt it is easier to learn this in a balanced and stable society. In a turbulent and confused world there are so many more deceptive voices, so many calls for our attention.. [. . . .] But what we must learn is that the power for the pilgrimage is in fact inexhaustibly present.

From John Main OSB, “The Christian Crisis,” THE PRESENT CHRIST (New York: Crossroad, 1991), pp. 74-76.