here's a christmas meditation from Richard rohrCOME EMMANUEL, GOD WITH US!Saturday, December 25, 2010 |
On the Christmas Day let me begin with a quote from the 20th Century writer G.K Chesterton: "When a person has found something which he prefers to life itself, he (sic) for the first time has begun to live". Jesus in his proclamation of the Kingdom told us what we could prefer to life itself. The Bible ends by telling us that we are a people called to say 'Come Lord Jesus (Revelation 22:20), who could welcome something more than business as usual and live in God's Big Picture. We all have to ask for the grace to prefer something than our small life, because we have been offered, the Shared Life, the One Life,the Eternal Life, God's life that became visible to us in this world as Jesus. What we are all searching for is Someone to surrender to, Something we can prefer to life itself. Well here is the wonderful surprise: God is the only one we can surrender to without losing ourselves. The irony is that we actually and finally find ourselves, but now in a whole new and much larger filed of meaning. |
If we try to make the church into the kingdom of God, we create a false idol that will disappoint us. If we try to make the world itself into the kingdom, we will always be resentful when it does not come through. If we make a later heaven into the kingdom, we miss most of its transformative message for now. We are not waiting for the coming of an ideal church or any perfect world here and now, or even for the next world. The kingdom is more than all of these. It is always here and not here. It is always now and not yet. No institution can encompass it. That is rather clear in the texts where Jesus describes the kingdom.
All false religion proceeds in a certain sense from one illusion. When people say piously, “Thy kingdom come” out of one side of their mouth, they need also to say, “My kingdom go!” out of the other side. The kingdom of God supersedes and far surpasses all kingdoms of self and society or personal reward.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears;
4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
5 Righteousness will be his belt
and faithfulness the sash around his waist.
Come Lord Jesus
Meditation in the Christian tradition is an ancient practice aimed at getting beyond our self-preoccupation through business, thinking and feeling to then be free to encounter God.
In the Moot Community, we are seeking to resource people to go deeper with daily prayer alongside regular meditation and contemplation. Meditation and Contemplation are both creative approaches to prayer with the aim of encountering God. Meditation does this by a process of stillness and getting beyond your thoughts and feelings. Contemplation does this by utilising the imagination as the vehicle for encounter of God.
n this first recording, John Main explains the basic approach to Christian meditation. If you have not done it before, we suggest 20 minutes as a starting place, as it takes a little while to get the hang of it. Remember meditation is not like going to the gym, there is not an instant hit of enhanced spirituality, but you will experience an emerging sense spiritual awareness and welbeing in your daily life.
If you have not meditated before then don’t forget that Moot has aweekly meditation group on wednesdays at 6.30pm in the City. We suggest 20 minutes as a starting place, as it takes a long time to get the hang of it. Remember meditation is not like going to the gym, there is not an instant hit of enhanced spirituality, but you will in time see an increased spiritual awareness in your daily life.
Please find below a short mp3 of John Main himself explaining this approach to meditation. If you have any queries or thoughts please do add comments. If you have been coming along to the meditation group and also have thoughts and queries, please do add these to.
here's a link so you can listen to the mp3 of John Main:
http://www.moot.uk.net/2010/11/21/how-to-meditate/Scapegoating soon morphs into anti-sinners, anti-heretics, anti-women, anti-Muslims, anti-inferiors (however each culture defines that), anti-Protestants or Catholics (depending on which kind of good Christian you are), anti-gays, anti-indigenous people, anti- people of any color, particularly black people, whom Christians felt free to torture and enslave, and anti- all non-Christians in general.
This big bad lie never stops, even among people who dare to say they are following Jesus who taught them “Whatever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters you do to me” (Matthew 25:40) and “Treat others as you would want to be treated yourself” (Matthew 7:12). We forgot that St. John said, “Anyone who says he loves God, but hates his neighbor, is a liar” (1 John 4:20).
Why are they selling poppies, Mummy?
Selling poppies in town today.
The poppies, child, are flowers of love.
For the men who marched away.
But why have they chosen a poppy, Mummy?
Why not a beautiful rose?
Because my child, men fought and died
In the fields where the poppies grow.
But why are the poppies so red, Mummy?
Why are the poppies so red?
Red is the colour of blood, my child.
The blood that our soldiers shed.
The heart of the poppy is black, Mummy.
Why does it have to be black?
Black, my child, is the symbol of grief.
For the men who never came back.
But why, Mummy are you crying so?
Your tears are giving you pain.
My tears are my fears for you my child,
For the world is forgetting again.
Author unknown.
http://theotherjournal.com/article.php?id=1040
