| A PEARL OF GREAT PRICE Laurence Freeman, OSB |
| Again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls; when he finds one of great value he goes and sells everything he owns and buys it. (Matthew 13:45) |
One of the most influential spiritual teachers of prayer of our time was the Irish Benedictine monk, John Main. He was born in England in 1926 and died in Canada fifty-six years later. For Fr. Bede Griffiths, writing soon after John Main’s death, he was the ‘most important spiritual guide in the church today’. As a young Catholic diplomat in the Far East, John Main was introduced to meditation by a gentle Hindu monk, Swami Satyananda. Never swaying from his own Christian faith, John Main immediately recognized the value of this practice that deepened and enriched the other forms of Christian prayer. It was not until years later that he fully realized how deeply this silent prayer of the heart was rooted in his own Christian tradition. He saw with fresh eyes the teachings of Jesus on prayer. And he read anew John Cassian’s vivid descriptions of the early Christian monks, the Desert Fathers and Mothers, who practiced and taught by their own humble example the simple discipline of the ‘prayer of one word’. He saw how powerfully this discipline deals with the distractions that inevitably fill the mind, most obviously at the time of prayer but at other times as well. In the mantra he saw the way to that stillness (‘hesychia’ as the eastern Christians call it) or ‘pure prayer’ that is ‘worship in spirit and truth’. He saw how the discipline of the mantra purifies the heart of contradictory desires and unifies us. The place of unity is the heart where we find the deepest and most natural orientation towards God as our personal source and goal. He understood too how the mantra brings us to poverty of spirit, or the non-possessiveness, that Jesus set as the first beatitude, the primary condition of human happiness. John Main soon learned through his own practice of meditation that the morning and evening discipline of meditation balances the whole day, every day of one’s life, in an ever-deepening peace and joy. And more and more, he saw the connection between this experience of inner peace and joy with the Gospel and Christian faith. Prayer for him now appeared as much more than speaking to or thinking about God. It is being with God. |
| A Pearl of Great Price Copyright © 2002 The World Community for Christian Meditation Webservices: www.comunicasoluciones.com |
| A PEARL OF GREAT PRICE |
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