Betsie 

Mt Pleasant, SC, USA

Discover the prayer of the heart and learn to use a sacred mantra to find stillness in God's presence.

English

Meditation is found in many traditions.  In the Christian tradition, it is the prayer of the heart and is often referred to as “pure prayer” or “prayer of the heart”, because it is a prayer without thoughts, words, or images and so takes us beyond the imagination and the ego.

When we meditate we are not thinking about God or speaking to God.  We are simply being with God in the silence and stillness of the present moment.

What Is Christian Meditation?

Hi, I'm Grace. Welcome to another reflection from the WCCM Young Persons
channel. Here we share teachings from John Mayne, Lawrence Freeman and the
Christian Contemplative Tradition. What is Christian meditation? Meditation is
found in many traditions. In the Christian tradition, it is the prayer of
the heart and is often referred to as pure prayer or prayer of the heart
because it is a prayer without thoughts, words or images and so takes us beyond
the imagination and the ego. When we meditate, we are not thinking about God
or speaking to God. We are simply being with God in the silence and stillness of
the present moment. We move from the mind to the heart. It is a prayer of silence,
stillness and attention. The essence of all prayer and love is attention. How do
we meditate? We meditate by becoming still in body and mind. The first thing
is to sit still. Meditation is not something we do just in our heads. It
involves the whole person, body, mind and spirit. So the way we sit is important. It
is important to sit still with a straight back, to be alert and awake.
Jesus said, stay awake and pray. Our physical posture is the first stage. We
become as still as we can physically but the real stillness is within. The first
thing we discover when we sit still is that our mind is racing from one thought
to another, from one plan to another, one memory to another, one fantasy to another.
Don't be surprised or disappointed. Be glad that you can recognise what your
mind is like. Because of this discovery of how distracted we are, many people are
discouraged when they start. Don't be discouraged. It is exactly why we need to
meditate, to calm the mind and allow the mind to become quieter, more still, more
clear. Meditation is learning to be in the present moment. When we meditate we
discover we are not in the present moment. Our surface mind is usually
dwelling in the past or the future or dwelling on some fantasy. Only in the
present moment can we find real peace, can we be at one with the God who is.
Meditation is the work of coming out of the past, letting go of the future and
coming in to the reality of the present moment, which we call the Kingdom of God
for in this present moment we find the presence of God within us. At this stage
the mind is like driving in a fast stream of traffic or being stuck in a
traffic jam. Meditation slows the traffic and clears it, but we can't do this
entirely on our own. St. Paul tells us that the Spirit prays within us deeper
than words. When we meditate we are allowing what we think of at first as my
prayer to become one with the prayer of the Spirit. When we meditate we are
entering into the living tradition that John Main passed on to us and which he
found in the wisdom of the early Christian monks. They recommended a way
of pure prayer and childlike simplicity that takes us to the core of our being.
They said to take a single word, a prayer word or mantra, a sacred word. During the
time of meditation we repeat the single word faithfully from beginning to the
end of our time of meditation. We let go of every thought, word and image. When we
become distracted we start saying the word again. Distractions will come
constantly. This is normal, so don't fight your distractions. Take your attention
off them and return it to the mantra. We say the word gently without force,
faithfully with attention and lovingly. When we pay attention to our word we
take our attention off ourselves. We leave self behind. This is why meditation
is a work of love. To be a follower of his we must leave self behind. When we
say it faithfully we are letting go of our thoughts, our possessions. We are
entering poverty of spirit. When we say it with loving attention we are
beginning to love God who loves us so that we can love him. People often ask at
first what should happen in my meditation? We're not trying to make
anything happen but reality is dawning. Nothing may seem to happen but we will
discover that meditation gradually changes our lives as we find the fruits
of the spirit growing in us. At times our meditation may lead us to experience
great peace and joy. Sometimes it seems a hard slog and a waste of time. We
learn to meditate with discipline without demands or expectations. We don't
meditate just for short-term benefits. Jesus said in the Beatitudes, happy are
the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. When we meditate we
are becoming poor in spirit. Reflect on what poverty of spirit really means.
Think of it as a letting go and becoming non-possessive. Choosing the word or
mantra we say is important. It is important that we stay with the same
word throughout each meditation and at each time we meditate. This allows the
word to become rooted in our heart. We could use the word Jesus or Abba. The
word we recommend is Maranatha. It is the oldest Christian prayer in Aramaic, the
language Jesus spoke and means come Lord. St. Paul closes the first letter to the
Corinthians with it. It is a sacred Christian prayer word but we don't think
about its meaning. Say it faithfully, attentively and lovingly. As we listen to
it, it calms the mind and leads us from the noisy monkey mind into the heart, the
deeper and more silent centre of our being. Say it as four equal syllables.
Maranatha. Articulate it clearly, silently and listen to it. Try to meditate twice a
day, each morning and each evening for about 25 minutes. This will take time, be
patient, keep on. Meditation is simplicity itself. The only difficult thing is that
it is so simple. What makes it possible for all of us is that it is so simple.
Think about how naturally children take to meditation. The problem is being
simple isn't easy because we have to face our complexities but meditation
itself will simplify us if we allow it to patiently and gently do its work.
Thank you. Peace be with you. See you in the next audio.
