Weekly Readings Newsletter

June 26 Readings

WCCM LogoAn excerpt from John Main OSB, MONASTERY WITHOUT WALLS: The Spiritual Letters of John Main (Norwich: Canterbury, 200), pp. 127-28.

The gift of vision is the wonder of creation. We are empowered to see the reality within which we live and move and have our being. It is not a gift we can ever possess because it is one we are continuously receiving. 

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June 19 Readings

WCCM LogoFrom Laurence Freeman, OSB, “Love That Divinizes,” LIGHT WITHIN (New York: Crossroad), pp. 56-57.

We ask, “What is spirit?” and we find it less and less easy to answer. It would be easier to answer if one could make a clear opposition between those different aspects of our being, the aspects we encounter daily, in our relationships and in our reflection on the mystery of life, the dimensions of body, mind, and spirit.  [. . . ]

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June 12 Readings

An excerpt from Laurence Freeman OSB, “The Now of Loving,” THE SELFLESS SELF (London: Darton, Longman, Todd, 1993), pp. 36-37.

As long as you think you can do just enough meditation to get by or enough to achieve something, you have not really begun to meditate. When you realize that you have started a journey that will last until the end of your life, you have begun to learn. 

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June 5 Readings

An excerpt from “Dearest Friends,” A Letter from Laurence Freeman OSB, Christian Mediation Newsletter, Vol. 35, No. 1, April, 2011.

Today the pace, uncertainty and huge interconnectedness of the global tipping points—from food, soil and water to biodiversity and financial systems---confront us with the need for what Simone Weil called “a new holiness” as necessary to the world today as “a plague-stricken town needs doctors.” 

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May 29 Readings

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

[. . .]To 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. Read more »

May 22 Readings

WCCM LogoAn excerpt from Laurence Freeman OSB, “Dearest Friends,” The World Community for Christian Meditation International Newsletter, Winter 2000.

As many Christians today find their leaders regressing into a rigid sectarianism, they are learning to find in their ancient contemplative wisdom a truer expression of the teachings of Jesus.; It is not those who mouth “Lord, Lord: who “please the Father,” but those who “do the Father’s will.” 

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May 15 Readings

John Main OSBFrom John Main OSB, "Growing in God," THE WAY OF UNKNOWING (NY: Crossroad, 1990), pp. 79-81.

What is the difference between reality and unreality? One way we can understand it is to see unreality as the product of desire. One thing we learn in meditation is to abandon desire, and we learn it because we know that our invitation is to live wholly in the present moment. Reality demands stillness and silence. And that is the commitment that we make in meditating. 

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May 8 Readings

John MainAn excerpt from John Main OSB, “Space to Be,” MOMENT OF CHRIST (New York: Continuum, 1998), pp. 92-93.

To know ourselves, to understand ourselves and to . . .get ourselves and our problems in perspective, we simply must make contact with our spirit. All self-understanding arises from understanding ourselves as spiritual beings, and it is only contact with the universal Holy Spirit that can give us the depth and the breadth to understand. . .The way to this is not difficult. It is very simple. But it does require serious commitment. . . Read more »

May 1 Readings

WCCM LogoAs excerpt from Laurence Freeman OSB, “The Labyrinth,” JESUS THE TEACHER WITHIN (New York: Continuum, 2000), pp. 230-31.

Are we prepared to practice detachment from what we instinctively know is our most precious possession: our separate identity? Relationship with [Jesus] the teacher at this point is of supreme importance. It allows us to risk our own death. By now the discipline of the mantra has led to the fortifying sense of discipleship which empowers us to let ourselves go. We can leave self behind precisely because we are in union and are never alone. The words of Jesus become true in our own experience:

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April 24 Readings

WCCM LogoFrom Fr Laurence Freeman, OSB: "How Long?" from Light Within: The Inner Path of Meditation, New York: Continuum, 2000, pp. 22-23.

Why is the question, "How long will it take?" so important and how can it be so discouraging? Partly because it is such an unclear question. It is a question that we need to ask, but after all what does it mean? How long will what take? What is it that meditation is trying to make happen? What is the goal? What is the destination? Meditation will certainly lead us into an ever-deeper encounter with our own reality, and because of that it will give our life a more stable dimension of peace, liberty of spirit and joyfulness of heart. 

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