JM 2017 August
Article
Steve Gardiner
The Peace Mantra
This summer marks the 10th anniversary of the Peace Mantra:
Peace in my Heart
Peace in this Place
Peace in our Land
and throughout the World
Peace
This simple mantra was created one evening by seven of us, who meditated together every week in west Cornwall. The words reflect our mutual belief that peace needs to operate on all levels: the individual, the community, the national (including the environment) and the global. This is nothing new. Spiritual leaders down the ages – Thomas a Kempis, Martin Luther King, the Dalai Lama – have all said very similar things.
Perhaps you might now like to pause for a few moments to focus upon the Peace Mantra. How does it speak to you? How could you use it to help build peace?
Just as many paths lead to the top of the mountain, so there are many different ways you can use the Peace Mantra. We encourage everyone to explore it in their own way. However, if you need them, here are two ideas: the first is a meditation, and the second a suggestion for everyday life.
1. During your quiet time of prayer or meditation, take the first line of the mantra: ‘Peace in my Heart’, and repeat it slowly, as often as feels right. At the same time, imagine that peace is gradually filling more and more of your being: your physical body, your brain, your emotions, and your spirit. Just allow this to happen without any force, or any judgement.
When you feel ready, repeat this process for each of the other lines. For ‘Peace in this Place’, imagine that the peace filling your being is overflowing into the community, and filling it; for ‘Peace in our Land’, imagine that peace spreading into every corner of the environment and the nation; and for ‘and throughout the World – Peace’ imagine that peace is radiating into and filling every part of the planet.
This meditation can be adapted to offer healing, unconditional love, or any other quality to oneself, to the community, the environment/nation and the entire world. Just change the wording to ‘Healing in my Heart, Healing in this Place …’ or ‘Love in my Heart, Love in this Place’ and so on. I write this in the aftermath of the terrorist attack in Manchester; it seems that Love, Healing and Peace are needed as much as ever.
A profound version of the meditation can be to say ‘Jesus in my Heart, Jesus in this Place …’ or to focus upon the word ‘Christ’, or ‘Mary’, or any other saint or archangel. There is absolutely no limit!
2. This suggestion is inspired by the wise words of Saint (Mother) Teresa of Calcutta: ‘Peace begins with a smile.’ Every person we meet is our sister or brother, just as we are their sister or brother. How better to acknowledge our kinship and to build bridges than to greet them with a smile?
This may seem trivial or glaringly obvious. But I have found that the simple act of greeting someone with a smile can have a remarkable accumulative effect: it can encourage others to be more open and friendly to the people they meet.
St. Teresa also said: ‘In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.’
The Peace Mantra finds its way into many corners in the world, often incorporated into the services or meetings of groups who work for peace. We use it in events to mark the UN International Day of Peace, which is on 21 September.
You can find more peace-building ideas on The Peace Mantra Foundation website at www.peacefoundation.org.uk or visit our interactive Facebook page, www.facebook.com/groups/1534015406881688/
Wishing deep peace to you and the entire world.
Article
[unstated]
The Julian Meetings Gathering at Derby
Malcolm’s morning talk was a tour de force. He was at ease, spoke without notes (not easy), profoundly and with great humility. By focusing, more or less, on one poem he could take it apart…and this he did expertly – but one would expect nothing less! A thrilling morning.
Jennifer Tann
Derby Day. It wasn’t what it sounds.
No silk clad jockeys, smells of turf and horse,
No loud-voiced bookies, shouting crowds,
No headlong gallops down the white railed course.
But Derby Day: in diary penned in red.
A day to meet like-minds, refresh the soul.
Where silence dropped like silk, where we were led
To seek the pearl within the Singing Bowl.
There was no clamour, rush, but restful space
To learn that prayer and poetry interweaving
Can allow the mind to receive new grace,
To delve beneath the words to find the meaning.
The day has passed, renewed, once more begin
To seek the God beyond, beside, within.
Janet Robinson
As soon as I read that the guest speaker was Malcolm Guite I knew I had to come to Derby, and he did not disappoint. A brilliant speaker who shed light on poetry in a way I had not met before. I already knew his collection of poems Sounding the Seasons, and now I own a (signed) copy of The Singing Bowl. I plan to get my own singing bowl to use at our Julian Meeting.
Thank you for organising an interesting day in an interesting place (once you had found it!) and a lovely opportunity to meet old friends.
Anne Stamper
Article
Brian Morris
Prayerful composition: A practical and spiritual approach to writing poetry
Malcolm Guite’s workshop, part of the Julian Meetings day at Derby in May, attracted a wide range of experience and expectation. People who had been writing for years, and in some cases had had works published, to those who’d never shared anything they had tried to write, or weren’t sure how to make their ideas concrete.
Malcolm offered three poems as examples – and alluded to many more in the discussion – and a number of different approaches as ways of getting started. I only hope that the noise (much of it laughter) emanating from our group didn’t distract those in the workshops in adjoining rooms!
The most helpful and inspiring part of the workshop, for me, was Malcolm’s example of how a poet’s mind works – always looking round the corner, catching the flicker of an idea, and ever ready to pursue it, even if it appears to lead in the opposite direction from the expected. He suggested that, for novices, working to a set metrical form and rhyme pattern could help to learn the craft. But he reminded us all that rules are there to be, if not broken, stretched to see how far they can bend! If it works, it’s right! If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter how technically perfect it is; it’s not useless – it’s something to learn from and improve.
One of the poems he used was George Herbert’s ‘Prayer’; a sonnet containing 27 images of prayer, without comment or explanation. ‘Somebody’, said Malcolm,’ might want to consider using these as the basis for a series of poems to unpack them, or to share their own spiritual experiences. I can never resist a challenge! A fortnight later, I don’t yet have all 27 – I’ve been averaging about one a day – but as examples of the results of this stimulation, try the following (the titles are phrases from Herbert’s poem):
Angels Age
We mark the passing years in joy or pain.
And memory’s basket brims and overflows
with times gone by, in sunshine or in rain,
in love’s caresses, or hate’s hammer blows.
The sharpest scars are those we often hide
unhealed, untreated, buried deep within,
and limp past healing streams we can’t abide
afraid to expose our long-forgotten sin.
Until some echo of the angel’s song
of praise eternal in the heavenly tiers
reaches our ears. Love and forgiveness long
rejected melts our hearts to flowing tears.
And in our weeping, God’s love finds more praise
than in the endless song of angel days.
Reversed Thunder
We see the lightning bolt that strikes the earth,
but not the first stroke, upward to the skies,
opening the path. And we lament the dearth
of God’s response to our requests and cries.
God-in-man acts through man; our cluttered ways
leaving no space for loving grace to reach
its earthing-point. Our endless busy days,
our restless nights, leave him no space to teach
us how to love. The calm that comes before
the storm escapes us. Teach us now to sit
in stillness here, for we can ask no more.
A moving target’s difficult to hit.
Open the path, and let God’s love come down
instead of seeing clouds as his dark frown.
Article
[unstated]
Quotes from Bishop Jack Nicholls’ Derby Workshop
‘Every heart needs an icon restorer to remove the grime of time, the grease of religion, the encrustations of possession’
(Over time icons get dirty, from ordinary dirt plus the grease from candles, and many are encrusted with pieces of precious metal from worshippers. Restoring them is a skilled job)
‘Worship is us joining in with heaven’s worship.’
‘You don’t judge an icon: when you meditate on one, it judges you, speaks to you and offers a window onto heaven.’
‘When some children were asked ‘What did Jesus do between Good Friday eve and Easter morning?’ a little girl eagerly answered ‘He went searching for his friend Judas through all the parts of hell.’
Article
Christine Allen
Reflection on Malcolm Guite’s talk
Malcolm Guite’s talk took me through time, into Eternity.
I felt like the hazelnut resting in God’s hand, a feeling that has not entirely left me, even a week later.
We moved here three years go, and I very much missed the Julian Meeting I had attended at the Convent of the Holy Name at Oakwood, Derby. The Derby event has encouraged me to consider starting a Meeting based at my local church.
The morning talk gave me a sense of resting, so I felt the need to express myself visually rather than through poetry. Sister Teresa Margaret kindly accommodated me on her workshop. I started to create an icon, which I then worked on at home. It is now at the side of my bed, bringing me back morning and evening to that resting place.
Meeting old and new friends was wonderful too. Thank you to all who helped create this inspired and inspiring day.
Article
[unstated]
Are we Singing Bowls?
On the dais at Derby were 4 Singing Bowls, owned by JM members. These bowls come from Nepal, Bhutan and neighbouring countries. They are crafted from layers of different metals, and have subtle variations in their shape, and in their decoration. Bowls come in all sizes from very small to very large, but most are designed to fit comfortably in your open hand.
They make a wonderful ringing tone when struck by the wooden striker, but it takes time and practice to make them ‘sing’. To do this you let the bowl lie on your open hand, or on a cushion provided with the bowl. It should just rest there – don’t grip it. Take the striker in your other hand and rest it gently on the outside of the bowl’s rim. With your hand relaxed, and (for many people) with a straight arm, allow the striker to start moving round the rim of the bowl. It should be just resting on the outer edge, and move smoothly. As you do this, and perhaps speed up a little, the bowl starts to resonate and produces an amazing ‘singing’ note.
A singing bowl is like a Julian Meeting in some respects. Although composed of similar elements, and intended for the same purpose, each bowl, or Meeting, is unique. The note produced by a bowl depends on its size, shape, metal and the skill of the person using it. Each Julian Meeting has its own ‘feel’, depending on where it meets, the people who are members, and how they seek to wait on God in the silence. Over the years, many of us have felt the resonance of the gathered silence in a Julian Meeting, allowing us to ‘be sung’.
Poem
Sr Rosemary CHN
Learning from Mother Julian
‘I saw God in a point.’ Strangest of all
her Shewings, this. Not vivid, visual,
like herring-scales of blood on withered brow,
not parabolic, like the tender tale
of eager servant and forgiving lord,
not Trinitarian theology
(giving the lie to her unlettered state);
not like the nurturing maternity
she calmly sees in Jesus, unconcerned
how it would shock a later, literal time.
Even her hazelnut, so dearly loved
and sentimentalised, cannot convey
an insight fresh as this. God in a point?
Abstraction merely, framed for thought alone?
Or matter, inconceivably reduced –
moment before the Big Bang detonates?
Energy of the atom, of the cell?
A point, she says, means God is everywhere,
not just in vastness of infinity
but in fine detail of created things,
the power that spoke creation from the void
shrunk to the confines of its tiniest speck.
This is the lesson she holds out to me,
reaching across the centuries to show
unchanging Love in ever-changing world:
God is too small to lose me. Though I try
to be invisible (as I have tried,
frightened and lost in alien company),
though I contract myself into myself,
creep to a crevice, play the hermit-crab –
God will pursue me through the meanest crack
where my truth hides, with pity, not with blame.
Love is God’s meaning, and all shall be well,
all shall be well, all manner of thing be well.
Prayer
Pax Christi
Prayer for Peace
O God, you are the source of life and peace.
Praised be your name for ever.
We know it is you who turn
our minds to thoughts of peace.
Hear our prayer in this time of crisis.
Your power changes hearts
Muslims, Christians and Jews remember,
and profoundly affirm,
that they are followers of the one God,
Children of Abraham, brothers and sisters;
enemies begin to speak to one another;
those who were estranged join hands in friendship;
nations seek the way of peace together.
Strengthen our resolve to give witness to these truths by the way we live.
Give to us:
Understanding that puts an end to strife;
Mercy that quenches hatred, and
Forgiveness that overcomes vengeance.
Empower all people to live in your law of love
Amen.
Poem
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Harvest
The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the overseer of the harvest to send out labourers into the harvest. Matthew 9.37–38
Maybe the harvest is not bringing people to Christ
but gathering the fruits of the Spirit
God has sown in you
for the sake of the world.
Maybe it’s not an act of taking, but receiving.
The harvest is plentiful
but few are the people who have gathered,
who have received the gifts, the grace,
the love growing in your heart,
and feasted on those fruits
to be strengthened to go out
and heal the wounded,
and be good news for the broken of the world.
The field stretches to the horizon.
There are more trees in this orchard
than stars in heaven.
What grace have you not yet harvested?
Go into that good harvest.
Here is a basket for your labours. Go
Poem
Lynne Chitty
The silence of your love
The silence of your love embraces me
I sense a smile,
An arm outstretched,
So still we sit,
So still.
Each breath is wonder,
Each thought delight and joy.
Unmarred by words,
Unspoilt
O perfect love explode,
Drench us
Drown us,
Deafen us to all our self-made noise,
To all except
The silence of your love
Amen
Quotation
Morton T Kelsey
Unless one takes time to turn inward and be silent, meditation and the spiritual quest will not get very far. We seldom find God in a hurry, or in bits and pieces of reflection on a day of busy activity. I am told that Dr Jung once remarked: ‘Hurry is not of the Devil, it is the Devil.’ There is simply no better way to keep ourselves out of a relationship with God than by simply having no time for Him, having no time to look within in meditation.
Quotation
Dag Hammarsköld
How can you expect to keep your powers of hearing when you never want to listen? That God should have time for you, you seem to take as much for granted as that you cannot have time for Him.
Article
[unstated]
Being part of the Julian Meetings Network
Challenged to reduce an explanation of contemplative prayer to fit into a ‘tweet’, a member of the Core Group came up with:
Contemplative Prayer:- Silence: listen for God. Stillness: be open to God. Simplicity: just BE with God. Surrender: let go and let God.
Can any readers come up with ‘tweets’ (max. 136 characters) for Julian Meetings or Contemplative Prayer?
The JM Council
The annual meeting of the JM Council will take place in mid-October. If you personally, or your Julian Meeting, have anything of interest you would like the Council to know about, or suggestions for them to discuss, problems that should be addressed, or ideas for what JM should (or should not) be doing, please send these in to Sheana Barby to be included on the agenda.
At the Gathering in Derby in May we were asked about how we provided teaching on contemplative prayer for both individuals and for Meetings; were commended for taking safeguarding seriously; and found that many people had not seen our publications, or even the magazine and newsletter – despite these being sent to every Meeting for all their members to share.
New Poster
The ‘trailing flower’ poster is also still available, in both A4 and A5 sizes.
Do try to use our posters to advertise your Julian Meeting in your local area. One Meeting had two new people come who had seen a poster for their JM in a church in a neighbouring town 8 miles away. They were happy to travel the distance to join the Meeting, so it is worth advertising your existence!
Article
Anne Stamper
Prayer Space
The Julian Meeting in Ringmer (East Sussex) meets in the side chapel of the beautiful old church of St Mary the Virgin which has stood on the site for at least 800 years. This year, for Pentecost, we held a two day event called ‘Discover Prayer’, with prayer spaces set up round the church. I was asked to set up a space for silent prayer in the side chapel.
800 Years
For 800 years
this has been a house of prayer.
For 800 years
people have come here to pray.
Now I am here.
I sit by the stone pillar
all is silent
I sit in silence
waiting on God.
The building speaks;
it speaks in silence.
It speaks
of those who have worshipped here
in those 800 years.
Some have
come here in thankfulness,
some in sorrow,
pleading, beseeching.
Some have been here with singing;
some have been here in silence.
Sit here in silence.
Waiting on God
in the silence,
with those who have been here before.
Let the stones speak
of those 800 years.
Poem
Ryan, of Tottenham Probation Service
Unconditional
You don’t like what I did
I hate what I am
She loves who I can be
You’re scared and offended
I cry for your pain
She lifts me to heaven
You resent and bad mouth
I cut and self-harm
She heals my heartache
You are unrelenting
I am unforgiving
She is unconditional
You will never love me
I cannot love me
She has always loved me
Book review
Margaret Sheather
Brandan Robertson • NOMAD, a Spirituality for travelling Light
DLT, 2016, £12.08
‘Nomad’ charts Brandan Robertson’s ‘short journey of faith’ from the fundamentalist evangelical religion of his teenage years into a more expansive understanding of the meaning of God’s call and the nature of Christian living. What he has discovered, and invites us to share, is the call to be nomads, ‘God’s spirit …beckoning us to take the next step forward into the unknown in full faith that God is with us, for us, guiding us’.
His writing has an attractive energy that comes both from the excitement of what he has discovered about faith and from this discovery having released him to be fully himself. Part of the context for his journey was awareness of his bisexuality and his experience of the church’s response. But this issue does not dominate, as he focuses on what he learnt about the church: it’s roots; worship; sense of community and holiness; the rich value of the Eucharist; what it means to live in the light of Grace. Robertson’s context is firmly American, so some statements referring to what ‘most Christians’ think or where ‘the Western Church today’ stands, jar in our European context. Enthusiasm sometimes creates a repetitive feel.
Some readers may value understanding more about Christian formation in the fundamentalist evangelical tradition; others may follow his journey more closely. This book offers a fresh look at some familiar themes and had something to make me stop and reflect in every chapter. He embraced the positive vulnerability of being a nomad and invites us to do the same: ‘Take the leap. Pack your bags and embark upon the journey your soul is longing for.’
Book review
Sheila Upjohn
Robert Fruehwirth • The Drawing of this Love: growing in faith with Julian of Norwich
Canterbury Press, 2016, £12.99
‘I found this review harder to write than any review I have ever written, because Father Robert’s book needs to be read and re-read and lived with before it is possible to write an appreciation of it. I know I shall come to value it more and more over the years.’
When you give a retreat on Julian of Norwich, you expect to be heard in respectful silence. But one day, when Robert Fruewirth invited his retreatants to see all of themselves, all of life and all the world’s history in the light of God’s promise ‘All shall be well’, some of them interrupted him, saying it was just not possible, and probably not even desirable.
This challenge is the starting point of The Drawing of this Love: growing in faith with Julian of Norwich. For ‘All shall be well’ is not an easy promise to believe. When Julian herself first heard these words her reaction was to reply: ‘Good Lord, how can all be well when great harm has come to your creatures through sin? Although ‘All shall be well’ sounds like a simple reassurance, there are deep and confronting truths hidden in that simple statement. Accepting ‘all shall be well’ means establishing new habits of trust and allowing all that is least loved to be open to the possibility of God’s healing.
This book explores the challenges involved in that trust and of living within it. It explores the challenge of being prepared to accept without understanding and of being content to know there are no easy answers. The exploration has to seek for answers and in doing so acknowledges that this must always be a work in progress. These answers have not been come by lightly. This book, like Julian’s is the result of more than 20 years of prayer and meditation on the message she was given – a message that she knew was meant not just for her, but for all her fellow Christians. Robert Fruewirth has under-stood that message and passes it on in his turn. The result is as moving as it is profound.
The Drawing of this Love is a book that needs to be read slowly. The chapters are short and each one is followed by questions. These questions are both comforting and challenging and form a hugely important part of the book.
This is not a book for quick reading, but should be taken little by little, a day at a time – either alone or with a group. Only then will it reveal its riches as Julian becomes our companion on our long and arduous, hopeful and joyous journey of faith.
Book review
Yvonne Walker
Janina Ramirez • Julian of Norwich – a very brief history
SPCK, 2016
Janina Ramirez may be familiar to readers as a presenter of TV historical documentaries. The book covers her July 2016 documentary ‘The search for the lost Manuscript – Julian of Norwich’ The author is an art historian and medievalist. She explores Julian’s life and times and looks at the major themes of her writings. She offers insights into how and why the manuscript has survived over these centuries of turmoil and unrest until the present day.
This book is intended as a brief introduction to Julian and it is a factual, enjoyable read for people who know little about Julian. The author has not filled the book with supposition: as an academic it is factual rather than spiritual. A bibliography for further reading is helpful for those wishing to explore the subject in depth. I would be happy to give this attractively covered hard back as a present to someone wanting to learn about Julian or who had enjoyed the documentary.
If this book is reprinted, it would be good to include the foundation of the Julian Meetings in the chronological time line from 1300 to 2001, which is printed before the historical introduction.
Book review
Janet Robinson
John Pritchard • Something More: Encountering the beyond in the everyday
SPCK, 2016, £9.98
In this refreshing book by the recently retired Bishop of Oxford he does not leap in at the deep end of organised religion, stating crisply that for many ‘the burning bush has gone out and nothing is left but wet ash’. He recognises the staleness of much religious language, and then offers an insightful approach towards spirituality and deep questions about life for the disillusioned, for doubters and enquirers. He achieves this using straightforward and uncluttered language. He explores spirituality and transcendence through human experiences, through art, mystery and wonder, not ducking the problems of suffering, and the disasters of our messy world.
Each short chapter discusses one main issue, supplemented by excellently chosen quotations. There are practical and imaginative ideas to take the reader’s search further. This book would be valuable for group discussion and there is a section at the end suggesting a structure for such meetings.
Being, as I often am these days, among those who dismiss things of the spirit, I feel this book will help me to offer my own affirmations without being dogmatic. It will also remind me on dark days that there is always ‘Something More,’ since it rethinks Christian spirituality and opens fresh horizons.
Book review
Ann Morris
Ian Adams • Wilderness Taunts: Revealing Your Light
Canterbury Press, 2016, £8.99
In her book ‘A Field Guide to Getting Lost’, Rebecca Solnit suggests that is only when we allow ourselves to be truly lost that we can begin to find our way to discovering our treasure. In this book, Ian Adams allows us to get lost in the wilderness, one step at a time. Each day, in memory of Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness, he encourages us to face a new challenge, or taunt, to lead us from a negative ‘I can’t’ to a positive ‘I can, and I will’. He frees us from a paralysing of lack of hope and supports us to in a new ‘yes’ to God’s particular calling.
Satan challenges Jesus (and, at times, all of us) to see what his (and our) response will be. Satan’s task is to probe and question, not under-mine or oppose. Taunts (challenges is a better word) which touch on our bruises, anxieties and fears encourage us to look at our weaknesses and failures, and help us realise that in the strength of God, we can be strong. It helps us to look into our shadow side, and embrace it.
In the book, each day has a short reflection; a word of hope to repeat quietly during the day; a phrase from the psalms; a black and white photo related to the reflection. If we have fallen into despair and hopelessness at unending bad news, No 25 ‘The World is Broken’ challenges us to look beyond, to the possibilities of healing and repair through small acts of faith, hope and love.
Other ways in which we may avoid God’s path are: ‘You do not have what it takes’, and ‘You are not worthy.’ The first challenges us to answer the question: ‘Who are you?’ Jesus knew who he was and what he had come to do. There was no temptation that would deflect him. This book helps us nurture the steadfastness to stay with God’s calling: not to be diverted by self-doubt or the quick fix, but to keep our vision clear. Each point is turned around so that it is no longer valid.
Useful at any time of the year, this book can help us turn from the traits that entrap us in daily living, and free us to live in the glorious technicolour of a new future. Our uncertainties and frailties are all grist to God’s mill, who can use us, shadow and all, for ultimate good. As the 40 meditations lead us from darkness to light they help us to name, accept and use this transforming knowledge to move on, give birth to a new future, and to get back on track with God’s plan.
Book review
Anne Stamper
Robin Daniels • The Virgin Eye: towards a contemplative view of life
Instant Apostle, 2016, £9.99
Robin Daniels, a counsellor, trained further as a social worker and a psychoanalyst – key components of his training were Jungian. He worked with hospital chaplains, and ran marriage enrichment courses and bereavement groups in London.
Having led a retreat on psychology and spirituality in the 1990s he began to expand his notes and added further reflections over the next decade with the view of producing a book. Sadly, he dies in 2012 before he finished the book and his wife Kathrine took on the role of editor to complete it. I think it is important to remember this – another editor might have been more ruthless. The book is in sections: Contemporary challenges, Vision, God, Self, and Others. Each section is almost its own book and each ends with prayers.
In the section headed Silence he writes this:
‘The ultimate prayer is constant awareness of God’s continuous presence (Psalm 16:8). To approach the goal – the bliss of the divine embrace – we need, at set times, to experience His presence – and especially in the wisdom and beauty of all-disclosing silence. God is everywhere, but silence is His special residence.’
This is a book to be taken slowly; it gives much to think about. The author quotes from a wide range of sources from George Herbert to Virginia Woolf, from St John of the Cross to WB Yeats, Shakespeare to GK Chesterton – that alone can send you off on further searches. His insights into contemplative prayer and mindfulness from a Christian perspective have much to offer a Julian – a book to keep handy on the shelf and to keep going back to.