In the Quiet Corner of Iona Abbey is a book of daily readings, compiled by Peter Millar, a long-time member of the Iona Community, in a little booklet entitled “Notes for a Pilgrim”. The page for the thirteenth day of the month includes the following by Laurence Freeman, Catholic priest and a Benedictine monk. I offer this for your mediation.
Meditation is simple and practical. It is about experience rather than theory: a way of being rather than merely a way of thinking. Indeed, because of the profound change meditation can work in one’s life, it is even more than a way of prayer: it is a way of life, a way of living from the deep center of one’s being. Meditation is focused on Christ. This means that it is centered on the prayer of Christ, which is continuously poured forth in the Holy Spirit in the depth of each human being. Thus, in this way of ‘pure prayer’ we leave all thoughts, words and images behind in order to ‘set our minds on the kingdom of God before all else’. We leave our egotistical self behind to die and rise to our true self in Christ.
Meditation does not exclude other types of prayer and indeed deepens one’s reverence for the sacraments and one’s reading of scriptures.
Meditation is simple and practical. It is about experience rather than theory: a way of being rather than merely a way of thinking. Indeed, because of the profound change meditation can work in one’s life, it is even more than a way of prayer: it is a way of life, a way of living from the deep center of one’s being. Meditation is focused on Christ. This means that it is centered on the prayer of Christ, which is continuously poured forth in the Holy Spirit in the depth of each human being. Thus, in this way of ‘pure prayer’ we leave all thoughts, words and images behind in order to ‘set our minds on the kingdom of God before all else’. We leave our egotistical self behind to die and rise to our true self in Christ.
Meditation does not exclude other types of prayer and indeed deepens one’s reverence for the sacraments and one’s reading of scriptures.
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