The Practice of Christian Meditation

In 1975 John Main OSB (Order of St Benedict) opened the first Christian Meditation Centre in Britain at his monastery in Ealing, West London. He had recovered a simple tradition of silent, contemplative prayer from the teachings of the early Christian monks, the desert fathers and mothers.

'John Main effectively put the desert tradition of prayer to work in our own day. The roots of his distinctive spirituality lie deep in the fourth and fifth centuries, especially in the works of John Cassian. The World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM), which continues his mission, is for me, as for many throughout the world, a taste of what a commitedly contemplative church might look and feel like.'  Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury.

Meditation is simple and practical. It is about experience rather than theory: a way of being rather than a way of thinking. Deeper than all ideas of God is God him/herself. Deeper than imagination is the reality of God. So in this way of pure prayer we leave all thoughts, words and images behind in order to turn our attention away from and beyond ourselves.

Meditation is about coming to stillness of mind and body. As the psalmist said: be still and know that I am God. Despite all the distractions of the modern world, this silence is possible for people today, but time has to be set aside for the work. The way we do this is to recite interiorly a short phrase or prayer-word, commonly called a mantra. John Main recommended the Aramaic word Maranatha, meaning 'Come Lord Jesus.'

'This is the verse that the mind should unceasingly cling to until, strengthened by saying it over and over again and repeating it continually, it renounces and lets go of all the riches of thought and imagination. Restricting itself to the poverty of this single verse it will come most easily to that first of the Gospel beatitudes – Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' John Cassian, Conference 10.

John Main soon learned through his own practice of twice daily (morning and evening) meditation that it gave balance to his day and life and he experienced a deepening inner peace and joy: 'The aim in Christian meditation is to allow God's mysterious and silent presence within us to become more and more the reality which gives meaning, shape and purpose to everything we do, everything we are.'

'Meditation is the missing dimension of much Christian life today,' says Laurence freeman OSB, Director of WCCM. 'It does not exclude other types of prayer and indeed deepens reverence for the sacraments and scripture.'