JM 2014 April
Article
David Self
Lechlade Julian Meeting Quiet Day – part 1
David Self led the Lechlade JM day. This is his reflection to introduce the morning session.
Have you looked up at night in the country, where there are no electric lights and the sky is clear? There are the stars, in huge numbers – some 300 billion stars in our galaxy alone, and there may be billions of galaxies. Our hearts are lifted up, we can feel so insignificant, and silence is the only response before the wonder of it all. How did all this come to be?
Scientists say that 14 billion years ago there was a big bang. Atoms of hydrogen and helium came into being and scattered with huge energy. Gravity gathered many into large clusters which ignited. Fusion happened and stars were born. Within the stars particles came together to make bigger atoms and gradually all the elements we know were created inside the burning stars. Some stars become so hot they exploded, and their material shot into space as star dust. Some dust formed new stars, like our sun, while other dust circled round this new sun and formed our planets, asteroids and maybe comets. Planet earth and all that makes it up, is formed from star dust.
On earth, in the last 4 billion years, atoms became molecules and then formed proteins, the building blocks of living things. Life appeared and developed slowly into plants and animals. The flow of creation continues with change – powerful and violent, or gradual, or with sudden leaps into new possibilities.
Thus our beautiful earth is filled with an amazing variety of plants and creatures, including us. The scientists fill out the creation story in Genesis 1. The Spirit broods over creation, bringing into being this amazing universe and, as a very small part, our lovely planet. The whole flow of creation continues.
Allow your souls to be more open to that flow. We are formed from star dust, we are animated dust. The Holy Spirit has breathed into all living things the breath of life. The Holy Spirit breathes into us the breath of life. To be alive is to be, now and from the very beginning, interconnected with all other living things on earth. To think that we can be independent, self-sufficient, is illusion. To think that we can do what we like with this earth is madness. ‘
We are part and parcel of nature, rather than self-contained isolated egos. The world is, essentially, a living organism, of interconnected mutually dependent elements. The current groans of our environment, which we have cruelly and blindly mistreated for so long, starkly demonstrate our shared fate with the natural world. All that thrives in our enormous ecosystem is connected. Nothing is foreign or alien to us. We all belong – to each other, to the animals, and to the trees and plants.’
— Hughes: finding hope and meaning in suffering p.46
And we all live on the one planet as it shrugs its shoulders with earthquakes and volcanoes, wind and ocean currents, and the cycle of the seasons.
We know we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, every second of every day, because we are alive. Life is given and shared, gifted, graced, contingent, and finite, for death is part of the gift of creation. I can go for a walk and see little of what is all around me because I am thinking of something else. I have to learn, again and again, to take time to feel, experience and appreciate the divine energy exuding from the natural world. When we take time to notice, the divine can be immediately and powerfully present to us – the evidence is all around us! But we must root ourselves in the present moment, allow ourselves to become aware and alive, and with delight let our eyes and ears be open to beauty as well as suffering.
A man who worked in a North Wales granite quarry had his life totally changed when, after retirement, his wife died and his house and belongings were destroyed by floods. He was bedbound in a residential home when, he claimed, he began to appreciate his natural surroundings. The view from his window – of the majestic mountains of Snowdonia – became his lifeline and his one joy. “Each day I’d open the bedroom curtains for him,” a care worker said, “and I’ll never take the beauty of my surroundings for granted again.”
The God of the Big Bang, the Spirit who moves over creation, was willing to take on the star dust to walk among us with all the possibilities and restrictions of humanness. There was the creator of the universe; there was Jesus who was born into our dustiness; who grew up in a family, walked this earth amid the longings of a people; he taught, healed and argued with people in their suffering and confusion and sinfulness. There he was, talking about the kingdom of God coming to us, even if it would cost him his life.
The resurrection of Christ has brought us an invitation from the Spirit to enter precisely as dust into the heart of the great dance that is the inner life of the triune God. The heart of creation is the love of God who, in great humility, has shown us the gracious presence of God to all human beings, in our concrete existence – a presence that neither evil nor death can remove. The same God who overflows with delighted energy to bring this creation into being, overflows with a love that will never let us go, a love that cannot be turned off by our rejection or rage or sinfulness – or death (‘Remember that you are dust, and to dust shall you return’).
There is a rhythm of living and dying in the natural world, indeed in the universe. Christ took on that rhythm at his birth and was lifted beyond it through his death and resurrection. On the tomb of the venerable Bede in Durham cathedral are the words he wrote:
‘Christ is the morning star, who when the night of this world is past, brings to his saints the promise of the light of life and opens everlasting day.’
If we are silenced by the wonder of God’s creation, how much more are we left in awe before a God who comes to us through the dust of the stars to draw us into eternal life in his Kingdom. Perhaps you could spend some time thinking of the positive things in your life and giving thanks to God for those blessings.
Poem
JT
All Shall Be Well
High energy morning,
Then into the silence. Stillness? Not yet.
Random thoughts distract.
Hands open, at rest.
Letting go; falling almost,
into Being. Stillness? Perhaps.
Then it came,
an unbounded ball of brightest light
into my hands. Not hot,
growing with my every outward breath.
Growing until it seemed I could contain it no longer.
The light of love;
tears falling I adored.
When it seemed I had strength no more to hold it,
the light was gently taken from me.
All energy gone; I had climbed a mountain
and received an inestimable glimpse of Glory.
Felt bereft, hollow, disoriented.
Then freshly earthed by the dipper darting upstream.
Article
John Ryall
Love Beauty
John Ryall sent this lead-in and lead-out, which he used with their Meeting in November. But it is something worth thinking of at any time of the year.
When my wife and I worshipped for four years with the monastic Community of the Transfiguration at Breakwater, Victoria, a banner called the “Resolve of the Community” hung in the sanctuary . This spelled out the ideals or things that the Community and worshippers should aspire to.
The middle one of these ten epithets was “Love beauty.” My mind turned to this when our beautiful hybrid irises started blooming in late October. To love beauty is something that the Christian should aspire to, even if at first it seems unnatural.
Paul, in Philippians 4:8, encourages the church at Philippi with the well-known words, “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think on such things.”
And in the well-known hymn by George Robinson (1838-1877), Loved with everlasting love. are the words in the second verse (using the original words):
“Beauty lives in every hue, Christless eyes have never seen…”
Once a person is born again or regenerated, it is like they are given new eyes to see the significance of Jesus in every, formerly mundane, aspect of the universe. As we experience the beauty of this world, we can truly say that Jesus’s loveliness ever grows because we see Him – His beauty, His creative power, His tenderness – in creation.
I never cease to be amazed at the beauty and variety of botanical life, from the humblest moss and weed to the most beautiful flowers, roses, irises, hibiscus, begonias, gladioli, and so on and on. And there are many other examples of the Creator’s beautiful handiwork to be seen if only we take the time to stop and look about us.
Of course there are many other examples of beauty in music, architecture, works of art, and we gratefully acknowledge the wonderful gifts God has given to people to produce such works.
As we approach the Advent season, a season of waiting, let us stop and look upon the loveliness of Christ and thank Him that we can appreciate the beauty of His creation and His gifts to people. Thank God for the beauty of His gift in Jesus Christ, that He became like us so that we could become like Him.
“He is altogether lovely” (Song of Songs 5:16).
The refrain from Robinson’s hymn, sung after each verse is:
“I am His and He is mine,
I am His and He is mine.”
As we enter into the beauty of silence, thank God for the assurance of your salvation, and for the beauty that surrounds us.
SILENCE
Before entering into the beauty of silence I spoke about loving the beauty we can see in nature and in the things God has gifted people to create.
Think for a few moments about the beauty you see in some people who reflect the love, joy and peace of the Lord, and their fellowship is sweet. They are all too rare. Do your lives radiate that inner beauty? If they do, you probably may not know it, until someone tells you. Its not something you can strive for, but will only come as you walk closely with the Lord each day.
Article
[unstated]
Report of the JM Council Meeting October 2013
Unfortunately several Council members could not attend – and we missed them – but we were pleased to have several visitors who had taken up the invitation made in the August magazine. The particular aim of this meeting was to move forward after the 40th Birthday Celebration in London in June. The Council were asked to submit ideas and questions before the meeting and these were divided into three groups.
a) Structures: Should we be planning how to refresh the Core Group and the Council? Not that members lack vigour but some will want to move on or out of their present roles. Do we need a more formal structure to encourage members to take on some of the roles?
b) Meetings. How can we strengthen the practice of current Julian Meetings? How should we reach out to extend what we value to the wider community and encourage formation of new Julian Meetings? Should we be making stronger links with other faith / multi-faith / contemplative groups?
c) Information Technology. How should we use IT to move JM forward? What are the risks and benefits of doing so?
We divided into three groups and spent time considering the questions before coming back for a plenary session.
It is difficult to summarise the outcomes as many ideas were put forward. With regard to Structures we felt that:
- We did not need or wish to become more bureaucratic.
- Planning to refresh the Core Group and Council has to be ongoing. We should make it clear that help is welcome and formulate clear role descriptions so that members of JM know what is involved if they wished to join the Council.
- Communicating with the general membership was difficult – and we would appreciate ideas from members.
With regard to Meetings one practical step has been to produce a questionnaire which Meetings could use to consider the current health of their meeting. This will be included in your August magazine, and we hope very much that you will give us some feedback on that exercise. The Council also felt that regional retreats, JM events and Quiet days would help members to meet and share different ways of ‘being JM’.
It was agreed when discussing Information Technology that some people in JM are not comfortable with IT, so we must continue using traditional ways of communication alongside newer ones. But we also thought that there are benefits in social networking to link those who are isolated and to bring a wider sense of community. To that end we agreed to set up an IT development group and to encourage the use of the Bulletin Board, launched in the December 2013 magazine. We realised that there is a lot to explore in order to find out what fits with the ethos of JM.
Jenny Tann, who had advised the Core Group in 2009 on ways that we might move forward, commented on the positive energy she felt from the discussion which she summarised as a desire to “refresh, renew and regenerate.”
The above is a wholly inadequate summary of our discussion but I hope it is sufficient for members to get a flavour of it and hopefully to contribute their own thoughts through the editor.
Quotation
Andrew Feyi-Waboso
May each in breath remind me of my total dependence on the spirit of creation: Christ in me the hope of Glory. And every out breath be a thanksgiving for the privilege to share in the unfolding of your divine will in heaven and on earth.
Article
Ann Moran
JM IT Update
Bulletin Board
Have you found this yet? There is a link from the website. This is an excellent way to share resources, publicise your meetings or quiet days and to meet and keep in touch with members around the world. Do use it, and do have a look if you have not already done so.
Got an idea for The Julian Meetings? Put it on the Bulletin Board and start a discussion. We welcome your involvement. Several of the suggestions for publicity made at Lumen are on the Bulletin Board, awaiting volunteers to make them happen. Have a look and see if anything interests you.
If you have any questions you can email
What’s Next?
We are looking at how we might develop ideas for streamlining our admin, including suggestions made at Lumen. For example, (but not exclusively!)
- Use paypal /debit / credit card facilities to pay subscriptions and for literature. Use direct money transfer likewise.
- Investigate other possible, useful electronic book-keeping /accounting software.
- Email and online registrations for subscriptions, renewals and registrations.
- Online shop for literature. Make the e-version of the magazine available to those who prefer to receive it this way. (This will save on postage and printing)
- Make e-versions of other literature available eg as pdf downloads
- Make the archives into an electronic record, maybe with some available on the website.
Now, these are just suggestions at the moment, we’d welcome your ideas and comments. Please email using the address, or Ann Moran at
Or put your ideas on the Bulletin Board’s IT Suggestion Box.
I set up my own facebook account to see how it works and I love it! I think JM should have a facebook page. (I should say that the Core Group and Council haven’t considered this yet!). Any facebook fans out there who would like to run one for us? If so get in touch. If we know we have volunteers to help we can consider setting one up. We can also set up a Julian Meetings Facebook Group. This can be restricted for JM members only, if that is what we prefer. We want to hear how our existing members who are on facebook prefer to use it.
Meanwhile, I think if you have your own facebook account you could also set up your own Julian Meeting page. If you do this please get in touch so we can link to it on the website.
Likewise with Twitter – I can’t understand it, but can see that it could be useful. One member is a big Twitter fan and she has posted about it on the Bulletin Board. Any Twitter users out there who could help us work out what to do about Twitter?
Online Meetings
It would be easy to set up a chat room for online meetings, or use Skype. As a member of an online prayer group for many years I know it works well. If you are interested contact me via the Bulletin Board or email as previously stated. If we can get a group together we can make a start. It could be very helpful for lone Julians who cannot attend a meeting.
Advertising your Meetings online
A few Meetings have their own websites, or are on a church or other local website. Do consider having your own Meeting website, facebook page, Twitter account or all three. It’s easy, and needn’t cost. If you need help, do get in touch. If you DO try it, tell us how you use it, its benefits and drawbacks.
What if you don’t have, or don’t want to use, IT facilities? Don’t worry, we will continue to send communications via the Royal Mail to everyone who prefers this method.
Article
Yvonne Walker
When is enough really enough?
Preparing a Quiet Day on Julian of Norwich, I was struck yet again by her words to God “You are enough for me” (Ch 5).
In our age of acquisition and consumerism “enoughness” gets squeezed out. I’d love our supermarkets to take “enough’ more seriously with their 2 for 1 offers. We accumulate far more than what might be just enough for our needs.
Do we spend time pondering “what exactly is the “enough” which I need God to provide for me?” Can I get to the point where I willingly surrender to God the outcome of my hopes, fears and worries and trust God enough so that no matter what happens, God’s grace is enough for me.
When talking about prayer (Ch. 42), Julian says “All that we lack we shall find in Him,” as she points us towards the image of God as the firm and strong foundation of our praying. If our spiritual lives are based on the secure and firm foundation that God truly IS, we probably don’t need more – it is enough.
So we may wish to ponder “Where is my security?” Do I, like Julian, find all that I lack in the firm foundation provided by God? Will the “enoughness’ of that foundation really support me through my times of doubt, fear and insecurity?
Whilst I don’t need to see the foundation – it is invariably out of view below ground – I do want reassurance that it goes very deep, is very stable and very secure. And that’s where trust comes into the equation. “God’s will is that we trust him wholeheartedly and confidently” (Ch 10).
Julian reminds us of the amazing, “supreme, surpassing, single minded, incalculable love” (Ch. 6) which God has for us from before we were born. As I sit in silent contemplation of the truth of these words, that surely is enough, – I don’t need more than that.
Extracts are from Revelations of Divine Love translated by Clifton Walters, published by Penguin
Prayer
St Augustine
Watch thou, dear Lord
Watch thou, dear Lord,
with those who wake, or watch, or weep tonight,
and give thine angels charge over those who sleep.
Tend thy sick ones, Lord Christ.
Rest thy weary ones.
Bless thy dying ones.
Soothe thy suffering ones.
Pity thine afflicted ones.
Shield thy joyous ones.
And all, for thy love’s sake.
Article
Jennifer Tann
Mindfulness
I have practised meditation for some years and read some inspiring books on the subject, but there is one thing about which I have felt that I was still at the starting line. I mean the wandering mind. And I used to beat myself up about it. Then I developed a painful back and began a journey to “Being in the Present’ through Mindfulness and it has been extraordinary. I attended eight NHS classes, in which we practised a range of non-faith-based meditations. Both our tutors meditated each day and we were urged to find regular space in the day to practise at home. We were given 2 CDs with short and longer meditations on them in different styles.
Our tutor said, in the first meditation, “the mind will wander – that’s what minds do. Over and over again.’ He suggested we gently bring it back, however often it happens, to focus again on breathing. No blame. This was a breakthrough for me. Now, when I meditate after a very busy day, my mind may wander rather more, but I don’t tell myself off; I just gently, every time it happens, bring it back to the present breathing.
I found two books very useful: Mark Williams and Danny Penman, Mindfulness, a Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World, Piatkus, 2011; and Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness, Rider, 2008. The Williams and Penman book mirrors the NHS course I attended and comes with a CD. Professor Williams has set up a Mindfulness programme at Oxford. Mindfulness became popular in the USA, particularly after Jon Kabat-Zinn introduced it at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1979. It has been found, in a number of studies, to help alleviate depression. There have been fewer trials with regard to pain but it has helped me greatly and has led me to re-examine my life and what I devote time to. Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist – Mindfulness has its roots in Buddhist meditation – writes delightfully about being in the present while doing everyday tasks, including washing up “The fact that I’m standing there washing these bowls is a wondrous reality… There’s no way I can be tossed around mindlessly like a bottle slapped here and there on the waves.”
And how has this helped my faith-based meditation? Hugely. I find that I still-down far more quickly; my mind wanders less often when I don’t tell it off; and being in the present (rather than planning this or that for the future) is an immense gift. What’s more I seem to get more done during the day.
Poem
Jane Tillier
Gentle as Breath
Jesus breathed on them and said “Receive the Holy Spirit’ (John 20:22)
Close up,
intimate
the warmth of a lover’s breath.
Holy,
unlooked for:
the gift of an unknown force.
Wounded,
peace-bearing:
the touch of a knowing God.
Jesus
gentle as breath:
the brush of butterfly’s wings.
Article
Gail Ballinger
Pain-bearers – part 1
Our brokenness is the wound through which the full power of God can penetrate our being and transfigure us in him. Jean Vanier.
Recently I’ve spent time – often a couple of hours – in hospital coffee shops, waiting. Reading, waiting, watching, wondering. Often I am drawn to the people I can see coming and going – those coming in for a drink and those coming and going via the main entrance. Some look tired, drawn, ill, anxious. Some are frail and slow. One young soldier has a heavily bandaged hand, perhaps injured at work. A man is handcuffed to his prison escort. A young couple come, smiling and happy, the wife heavily pregnant. I have time to rest, wonder about their stories and commit their needs for healing to God. I find I adapt the prayer of St Augustine to ‘those who wait or watch or weep this day’ – hospitals often involve a lot of waiting.
My frame of mind is helped by my choice of reading. In that situation I rarely get on with novels; newspapers are unwieldy and intrusive at a sometimes shared table. Recently my choice has been Soul Pain, edited by Jennifer Tann. It is a collection of essays by priests and ministers about their experience of serious and life threatening illness. The term Soul Pain comes from Dame Cicely Saunders (1918-2005) best known for her role in the birth of the hospice movement.
Heartbreak is part of priests’ and ministers’ daily work: regular encounters with people trying to cope with life-threatening illness or life-changing situations. When clergy face these difficulties themselves they do so from a position of already carrying other people. Also their afflictions are, in part at least, suffered publicly, due to their public role. This, In turn, has pastoral implications. How do they cope when the bad news is their bad news? when they are gravely ill, how do they live out their calling, and manage their feelings and their pastoral relationships? What about their families? One person said his hospital treatment / illness was his work for the time being – in the connections he made with those around him in hospital.
They live out the difficult questions brought to them by others, and to which there are no easy answers. I was very struck by the generosity and courage they showed in sharing their stories. Some came rather close to home, notably those on infertility and miscarriage: when my husband was a curate I had an ectopic pregnancy and was unable to conceive again. If we’d had this book then, we’d have found life a little easier.
Soul Pain is a moving series of reflections on the shock, fear, anger, desolation, and acceptance that serious illness brings, the choices to be faced and the meaning of healing in such contexts. It has insights for all who minister to those with life-threatening conditions or who watch and wait alongside loved ones. The final chapter is an excellent ‘after-word’ on lament by Gordon Mursell and includes ‘a way to pray the psalms as a way of intercession’.
Eternal God, Life-giver, Pain-bearer, Love-Maker … To some extent we are all pain-bearers, bearing at times our own pain, sometimes other people’s – often both. Soul Pain reminded me of Pain-bearers compiled by Ann Bird, a book published some years ago. This is more about bearing other people’s pain than our own, though that is there too. Contributions are about pain carried on behalf of others; caring at home; caring in a hospice; reflections of clergy who’ve been involved in bearing the pain of those caught up in major disasters.
I found Ann Bird’s own contribution: Everyone has their own burden to bear (Galatians 6:5) particularly helpful. The final essay is an excellent, insightful theological reflection on pain-bearing, including bearing physical ailments, and the pain and distress of nations, ‘Jesus the healer is himself subject to pain’. ‘We all want to recognise, with Abraham Maslow, that there is a hierarchy of needs which have to be met, but this is a far cry from the transcendent demands of the gospel which call for self-abandonment, for giving and not counting the cost, for losing one’s life in order to find it.’ (Arch) Bishop Desmond Tutu reminds us that ‘a Church that does not suffer cannot be the Church of Jesus Christ’.
Different altogether is Mindfulnes for Health by Vidyamala Burch and Danny Penman. This is about our own pain, how to look on it, and particularly how not to be trapped by it. With the focus on now, this book is an exercise in coping with pain, particularly with severe physical pain and the consequent anxiety and disruption of our usual way of life. It follows the pattern of Mindfulness by Mark Williams (see page opposite and http://www.franticworld.com) with an eight week course of guided meditation in printed and spoken form (with accompanying CD.) Like Quiet the Mind (see page 21) it is easy to add Christian content or symbols. Vidyamala is the founder of Breathworks, through which she and her colleagues seek to help those struggling to manage acute physical pain. Vidyamala and Danny start by explaining how they needed to cope with intense pain and how meditation helped them. Read Vidyamala’s article One Moment at a Time (see website).
What else helps us? One need we have is to try and make sense of what is going on: to raise and answer questions and to reconcile them with our faith in God. We all experience pain in varying degrees sooner or later. It is a human quality to try to make sense of our experience, even if our attempts don’t take us very far. In A Grief Observed – a diary written when his wife died – C.S. Lewis wrote: When I lay these questions before God I get no answer. But a rather special sort of ‘No answer.’ It is not the locked door. It is more like a silent, certainly not uncompassionate, gaze. As though He shook His head not in refusal, but waiving the question. Like ‘Peace, child, you don’t understand.’ Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable. How many hours are there in a mile? Is yellow square or round? Probably half the questions we ask – half our great theological or metaphysical questions – are like that.’ (C. S. Lewis: A Grief Observed )
The other need is to try to find ways into wholeness. Does prayer help pain, but also does pain help prayer?
We hope to continue this topic in the August issue, drawing on the writings of Angela Ashwin (speaker at the JM 40th anniversary), Ivan Mann and Jim Cotter. We would be glad of any thoughts you might care to contribute. What helps you, or those you know?
BIRD, Ann (compiler) – Pain-bearers. Methodist Publishing House 1996 out of print; used copies available
LEWIS, C.S. A Grief Observed. Faber and Faber1963, 2013
TANN, Jennifer (editor) Soul Pain: Canterbury Press 2013
VANIER, Jean – The Broken Body DLT 1988
Breathworks website: www.breathworks-mindfulness.org.uk
Book review
Gail Ballinger
Mark Williams and Danny Penman • Mindfulness: a practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world
Piatkus, 2011
AND Vidyamala Burch and Denny Penman • Mindfulness for Health: a practical guide to relieving pain, reducing stress and restoring wellbeing
Piatkus, 2013
Mark Williams is Professor of Clinical Psychology, Oxford University and Director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre.
Vidyamal Burch started Breathworks to help other people cope with extreme pain following her own experience of two major back operations (late teens?) Followed by major spinal injury – including a broken spine in a car accident when she was 23. She uses a wheelchair and crutches.
The format of these books is similar, perhaps because of Danny Penman who is a journalist. His story of pain following a paragliding accident in the Cotswolds and Vidyamala’s are told at the beginning of their book. Each book has an eig ht week programme, following the same ‘shape’ for the participant with a meditation and a ‘habit releaser’ each week; meditation to be practised at least 6 days out of 7. The meditations are printed in a box for ease of reference. Both books look similar. The bibliographies have most of the same books, but Vidyamala’s lists additional books on pain.
Mark’s is about Mindfulness Based Stress Relief (MBSR), which seems to have developed from Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and work with depressed people, some seriously so. The book focuses on stress relief and relief from anxiety and the cycle of destructive negative thought. Vidmalya’s is primarily about pain but extends to stress relief.
Vidmalya and Danny describe their book as ‘the sister’ publication to Mark and Danny’s. The covers are of similar design, making their relationship apparent. Mark’s ‘habit releasers’ are different from what I have read of Vidyamala’s so far: his include eating a raisin mindfully with step by step guide, eating chocolate very slowly so that it dissolves in the mouth and really tasting in both cases. Vidyamalas so far are spending time with nature and looking at the sky – as far as I have got with the book.
Both books are very good. I think I would only start with Vidyamala’s if physical pain was the main issue, though there are things in hers that would help stress and supplement /complement Mark’s.
Both books include a CD with the guided meditations for the eight weeks. Gail
Quotation
Peg Huxtable
The best reflections are there when the wind, the water and you are still.
Book review
[unstated]
Matthew Johnstone • Quiet The Mind: an illustrated guide on how to meditate
Robinson, 2012, £8.99
On first glance, this looks like a children’s book: a slim, high quality paper-back, opening landscape, with large colourful illustrations and not so many words. Simple. The author, in his introduction, talks about different forms of meditation and says ‘the message and visual concepts of this book are simply about sitting with intention while bringing focus and mindfulness to our breath’. Written for beginners, all religions and none, it is a step by step, in depth guide about turning down our ‘thought valve’. This author’s definition, with the title ‘Quiet the Mind’, plus my own study of the book, makes me think this book is more about learning to contemplate.
Relaxation, prayer, meditation and mindfulness have all been mentioned in our magazine in connection with psychotherapy/mental health. Prayer is about our relationship with God and this book describes a process to enhance mental health and turn down the constant thoughts, particularly negative ones, which ‘can become exhausting and bring about stress, insomnia, anxiety and depression, if left unchecked’.
It’s recommended to read the book twice before starting to meditate/pray. I sensed the author writing out of his own journey with meditation, and he certainly echoes my personal struggles. He describes all the difficulties and offers solutions, using delightful illustrations and simple sentences.
After 12 years of trying to pray contemplatively, I found this basic framework good revision. It improved my discipline to keep practising even for five minute sessions within a day, and I have felt the benefit. I found nothing in this book which sat uncomfortably with our four JM contemplative prayer principles: Stillness, Silence, Simplicity and Surrender, and it was easy to apply Christian symbols if needed.
Matthew Johnstone says, “If you learn to meditate, your whole body will thank you for it. You will feel more ‘in the present’, more youthful, more energised, have greater concentration, better moods and sleep more soundly!”
“Even when meditation is mentally turbulent, there is still benefit from sitting quietly”. “There is no place quieter than the space that exists between each breath”. What more incentive could there be to support our prayer lives? Maybe this book is helping reinforce the healing power of ‘contemplative’ prayer!
This is an honest and humorous, warm and encouraging book I would heartily recommend.
Book review
Deidre Morris
Gina Hall • Praying with Posture: Short meditations for the whole body
Redemptorist Publications, 2009
This is a delightful little (only 5½ inches square and 16 pages long) book that offers a lot. On each of six double-page spreads there is a colour photo of a French wayside shrine or calvary; a line drawing of the chosen posture; suggested Bible passages; and notes for what the photo, posture, and scriptures, might evoke for contemplation, meditation and prayer.
This book encourages us to be aware of our posture, and how it can influence our prayer, in a simple and positive way. It could be used by an individual, or a prayer group (even a Julian Meeting) who wish to try something a little different. It might be particularly helpful with children, young people, or others new to prayer, as it engages more than just the mind.
Book review
Richard Skinner
Ian Adams • Running Over Rocks: spiritual practices to transform tough times
Canterbury Press, 2013, £14.99
Ian Adams, poet, writer, artist, retreat leader and Anglican priest, is author of Cave Refectory Road (Canterbury Press 2010) and creator of the daily Morning Bell on social media.
The originating image for this new book is that of the author as a boy running over rocks – huge volcanic boulders – on a beach, sure-footedly leaping from one to the next, discovering that “the faster I move the more natural is my movement. The less I think about the path, the clearer the path becomes”. In later life, the art of running over rocks comes less easily, as he spends much more time looking at the gaps between boulders with “their dangerous edges and their impossible walls”. A vivid metaphor for how our natural spontaneity gets eroded by the toughness of life. He has drawn upon practices and exercises from Christianity and a range of other traditions through which we can develop the ability “to live in the twenty-first century with joy, grace and purpose” by recovering “our deep connection with all that exists”.
Each of the 52 short chapters begins with a poem, moves on to a reflection, and ends with a suggested practice: a form of lectio divina in which the landscape is taken as a text to meditate on; or giving full attention to whatever daily tasks need doing from food preparation to putting out the rubbish; or seeking an image to reflect what you value to be your icon-companion for a week.
Central to Ian Adam‟s approach is “attentiveness” and “reverence”. Not easy for most of us caught up in the whirl of 21st century Western life where multi-tasking frequently seems unavoidable. This book is an excellent resource for those seeking to engage and reconnect with who we really are in the midst of all our whirling.
Book review
Anne Stamper
Jim Cotter • Etched by Silence: a pilgrimage through the poetry of RS Thomas
Canterbury Press, 2013
The poet-priest RS Thomas ministered at the church of St Hywyn, Aberdaron, right at the end of the Llyn peninsula in Wales. Jim Cotter who compiled this selection of RS Thomas‟s poems was also priest there from 2008 until his retirement. This book was first published locally in 2011 and the poems he chose reflected that harsh local landscape and many referred directly to it. In the preface he wrote “This is not an easy book, nor an easy landscape, nor an easy poet, but they are in the end benign.”
The 52 poems are quite short and each is given a double spread in the book; the poem top left, its source bottom left, something about the location of the poem top right and a reflection by the compiler bottom right. This leaves space for the reader to make his or her contribution – another poem? a drawing? some thoughts? For me it led to small drawings.
This is a book for a pilgrimage in the imagination, if you cannot do it on the ground in Wales, taking it slowly, perhaps a poem a week? A book to treasure and return to again and again.
Book review
Jennifer Tann
Kim Nataraja • Journey to the Heart: Christian contemplation through the centuries
Canterbury Press, 2011, £25.00
This is a treasure trove of accounts of contemplatives by different experts, each account being preceded with a short introduction by the editor. Beginning with Jesus, moving on to St John and St Paul, to early contemplatives, the Desert Fathers, St Benedict, Meister Eckhart, St John of the Cross, George Herbert, Evelyn Underhill, Thomas Merton, to Bede Griffiths and John Main (and many others – thirty in all).
Six women: Hildegard von Bingen, Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, Theresa of Avila, Evelyn Underhill and Etty Hillesum are included. It would be churlish to argue the toss as to the exclusion of, for instance, one of the leading mystics in the foundation of the Dominican movement – Catherine of Sienna – and the inclusion of Etty Hillesum, inspired and hugely courageous though she was.
The chapters are all based on talks given by the authors to a 4-year course run at the London Christian Meditation Centre. The authors include members of Franciscan and Benedictine communities, academics, priests, retreat leaders and well-known writers on spirituality. Each chapter has a brief synopsis of the life of the contemplative; besides a list of events “also around this time‟. Most authors quote insightfully from the writings of the respective contemplative and threads are well drawn together at the end of each account.
This is a book which takes a broad sweep and will be valued for it. Most readers will know the life story and writings of one or more of the contemplatives considered and in these cases will be aware of the introductory nature of that account – the chapter on Julian is a good example. But this is inevitable and the book is over 400 pages long as it is. And there will be contemplatives about whom most of us know far less. With helpful subheadings, each chapter is accessibly written, whilst in no way talking down. This is a valuable compendium. It is, however, to be regretted that there is no index for this makes cross-referencing difficult.
Book review
Philip Brown
Philip Sheldrake • Spirituality: a very short introduction
OUP, 2013
This brief introduction trys to understand how “spirituality” is perceived in the modern world – a term used mostly in Christian contexts, and then broadened to have meaning in all the faith traditions e.g. Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, Hinduism.
Philip Sheldrake traces that enormous development largely to the global convulsions of the 20th century. Also to the retreat from automatic adherence to the dominant religion, alongside people’s dissatisfaction: a growing hunger for a meaning to life beyond the meeting of material needs to give it meaning and worth.
He traces it in the growth of post-modernism, with its distrust of institutions, and in excessive individualism relying on “my personal experience, my development’.
Alongside that is the recognition that an authentic “spirituality‟ must have implications for life in society, challenging many culturally accepted attitudes and practices. Philip gives examples across many areas of life where people recognise the importance of spirituality. For “spirituality‟ to mean anything, it must embrace every aspect of life. He illustrates different ways to live out a committedly “spiritual‟ life.
Where does this leave traditional religion? Philip stresses that underlying every spirituality there is inescapably some core of belief, implicit or explicit. Members of any religion should (he hopes) be able to respect and learn from authentic spirituality wherever it is found – some people are revered as icons across all “faiths‟ as the death of Nelson Mandela proved.
I found this book to be both encouraging and challenging. It has huge implications for the nature and opportunities for evangelism, founded on a deep respect and reverence for all people: and so for my own ministry and personal maturing in the love of the God of Jesus Christ.