Meditation

Be still and know that I am God - Psalms 46:10

Children and young adults are born contemplative but in the modern world they are bombarded from an early age with noise, stimulus and a message to keep busy.

Christian Meditation, a form of Contemplative prayer, is practiced by all students in all schools across the Townsville Diocese. Meditation is a universal spiritual wisdom and a great practice that we find at the core of all the great religious traditions, leading from the heart to the mind.

It is a way of simplicity, silence and stillness. It can be practised by anyone from wherever you are on your life’s journey. It is only necessary to be clear about the practice and then to begin – and keep on beginning. Silence means letting go of thoughts. Stillness means letting go of desire. Simplicity means letting go of self-analysis.

In Christianity this tradition became marginalised and even forgotten or suspect. But in recent times a great recovery of the contemplative dimension of Christian faith has been happening.

Central to this now is the rediscovery of a practice of meditation in the Christian tradition that comes to us from the early Christian monks – the Desert Fathers and Mothers and allows us to put into practice the teaching of Jesus on prayer in a radical and simple way.

Meditation is not about getting into an altered state of consciousness or seeing or experiencing anything out of the ordinary. It is about entering more fully into the ordinary and discovering thereby the absolute wonder of it, the presence of God: that the ordinary is shot through with the extraordinary.

What are the benefits and fruits of meditation?...

There are no guarantees when we start but people who have meditated for a long time see positive effects in their lives as a result of their daily practice.

Something inside us changes for the better. We are permanently transformed - not just experiencing occasional highs or altered states of consciousness.

Basically, changes that can be expected from meditation are:

• Meditation reduces stress and increases our sense of well-being and harmony.
• Meditation leads to increased self-knowledge and self-acceptance.
• Meditation deepens our personal relationship with our God
• Meditation helps us to know and follow Christ
• Meditation increases our desire to build community with others