Welcome to the Anglican Churches of Quinte West

As we begin to learn about the practice of Christian meditation, we will start by focusing on our breath and our breathing.  The Hebrew word for breath and wind is “ruah”; this same word is used in scripture to refer to God’s Holy Spirit.  To focus on our breath and our breathing is to focus on the body.

 

From Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation, the Centre for Action and Contemplation.  February 25, 2020

 

The Belly Center

“The body plays a crucial role in all forms of genuine spiritual work, because bringing awareness back to the body anchors the quality of Presence.  The reason is fairly obvious: while our minds and feelings can wander to the past or the future, our body can only exist here and now, in the present moment.  This is one of the fundamental reasons why virtually all meaningful spiritual work leads back to the body and becoming more grounded……[and] your body is already connected with the whole sacred reality that God’s expressing right now…….

 

So this whole Body or Gut part is teaching us what it means to actually live in the here and now, to feel our existence, and to operate from that, which gives us a sense of confidence, fullness, aliveness, being.  In religious language, it’s like you feel held in the Presence of God. And it’s like feeling the solidity of spirit, life, right now.”

 

From “Meditation” Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices That Transform Us, by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun.  Intervarsity Press, 2005    

 

 pp. 172 – 175

“Meditation is not simply a discipline of Eastern religions and New Age gurus. Meditation rests at the core of Judeo-Christian spirituality; it’s an invitation to apprehend God.  Psalm 137:7 asserts, “Where can I go from your Spirit?/Where can I flee from your presence?”  In the words of C.S Lewis in his Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer:  “God walks everywhere incognito.” Clues to God’s presence can be found in creation, in history, in human beings, in worship, and in Scripture. But we must stop and pay attention. Meditation runs counter to our busy culture, where first impressions, speed reading, and skimming are as deep as we go.  In meditation we gaze at something or someone long and longingly.  We seek the treasure and truth of what we see.  Just as moving a prism reveals different bands of colour, meditation allows God to shine his truth and light into our hearts.

Meditation is not about emptying the mind so that there is nothing there.  Christian meditation opens us to the mind of God and to God’s world and presence in the world.”

 

From Word into Silence: A Manual for Christian Meditation by John Main.  Canterbury Press, Norwich, 2006

 

p. 1 - 2

“Learning to meditate is not just a matter of mastering a technique.  It is much more learning to appreciate and respond directly to the depths of your own nature, not human nature in general but your own in particular. 

 

Being Restored to Ourselves

First we must understand the Christian context of meditation. I am using the term meditation in this instance synonymously with such terms as contemplation, contemplative prayer, meditative prayer, and so on.  The essential context of meditation is to be found in the fundamental relationship of our lives, the relationship we have as creatures with God, our Creator. But most of us have to take a preliminary step before we can begin to appreciate the full wonder and glorious mystery of this fundamental relationship. Most of us have to get into touch with ourselves first, to get into a full relationship with ourselves before we can turn openly to our relationship with God.  Putting this another way, we can say that we have first to find, expand and experience our own capacity for peace, for serenity, and for harmony before we can begin to appreciate our God and Creator who is the author of all harmony and serenity.

                Mediation is the very simple process by which we prepare ourselves, in the first instance, to be at peace with ourselves so that we are capable of appreciating the peace of God within us.”

 

p. 47

                “Remember, to meditate well you need the quietest place you can find.  You need good posture, with your spine upright and calm, and regular breathing.  Then begin to say your mantra calmly, peacefully, and with complete simplicity.  To meditate, you need only to repeat your mantra with persevering faithfulness.”

 

p. 51

                The venerable tradition of the mantra in Christian prayer is above all attributable to its utter simplicity.  It answers all the requirements of the master’s [Jesus] advice on how to pray because it leads us to a harmonious, attentive stillness of mind, body, and spirit.  It requires no special talent or gift apart from serious intent and the courage to persevere…..Our mantra is the ancient Aramaic prayer, ‘Maranatha, Maranatha’. ‘Come Lord. Come Lord Jesus’.