{"id":304,"date":"2019-03-26T14:30:29","date_gmt":"2019-03-26T14:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oblates.wccm.org\/v2019\/?p=304"},"modified":"2019-03-28T10:10:31","modified_gmt":"2019-03-28T10:10:31","slug":"to-love-and-to-serve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oblates.wccm.org\/v2019\/readings-and-resources\/articles\/to-love-and-to-serve\/","title":{"rendered":"To Love and to Serve"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the early 5th century Cassian brought the teachings of the Desert to the western church, through establishing the twin\nmonastic foundations (for men and women) at Marseilles and, above all, through his great work: the Conferences of the\nFathers<\/em>.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 9th and 10th Conferences of Cassian \u2018On Prayer\u2019, John Main found a Christian expression of a universal spiritual\nwisdom\u2014the prayer of one word, or monologistic prayer as the scholars call it\u2014leading through a radical simplicity to the first\nof the Beatitudes: poverty of spirit. Without diluting the simplicity or radicality of this prayer, John Main presented it in a way\nthat continues to deepen and transform the spiritual life of many people today almost 29 years after his death.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monasticism was originally a lay movement in Christianity. Its being over-clericalised helped it to spread, but diminished its spiritual influence. Today the essential monastic spirit is in resurgence: the centrality of contemplation; the love of solitude; the courage to live in community; the equal respect for marriage and other forms of life; and perhaps, as our community has found, the opportunity to live as a monk for a period of time before marriage, while remaining thereafter in the same community. One of John Main\u2019s proven insights was to see the connection between contemplative prayer and a transformation of the way we live with others. He believed that \u2018meditation creates community\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from the Christian contemplative tradition itself, the very words of Jesus, on prayer, indicate that he was a teacher of contemplation. Going into our inner room, reducing our prayer-babble because we trust that God knows our needs even before we ask, eschewing anxiety, being mindful, living in the present\u2014these are his teachings. And they form a powerful endorsement of the contemplative life of the Christian vocation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As his disciples, is meditation justifiable, in terms of our commitment to be peace-makers\nand to feel a thirst for justice? It would fail this test if the regular practice of meditation did\nnot lead to a greater personal freedom and courage\u2014to love and to serve. To understand how\nthis happens we need to return to an early Christian understanding of prayer itself. Origen, in\nthe second century, said: \u2018We do not pray in order to get benefits from God, but to become\nlike God. Praying itself is good. It calms the mind, reduces sin and promotes good deeds.\u2019 The\nearly monks called meditation \u2018pure prayer\u2019.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years our community has been led, not only into inter-religious dialogue\u2014a\nnecessity for global peace today\u2014but also to close collaboration in places of conflict, such\nas Belfast and Sarajevo. In Haiti, the Solomon Islands, Fiji and Indonesia, which I have\nrecently visited, the teaching of meditation is quite evidently a direct, if hard to measure,\ncontribution to social and political change.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not through direct action, although many meditators are also activists, but above all through a transformation of awareness. Such change in consciousness is not so much part of a war of words or propaganda, as the effect of the power of silence. If you want to get the meal on the table, and if you want it to be good, then Martha and Mary need to work together.

With much love<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laurence<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the early 5th century Cassian brought the teachings of the Desert to the western church, through establishing the twin monastic foundations (for men and women) at Marseilles and, above all, through his great work: the Conferences of the Fathers. 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