John Main - Böcker

Many thousands of people across the world have found their spiritual lives enriches by the daily practice of Christian meditation, the method of silent prayer taught by Benedictine monk John Main. It is a tradition which draws on the ancient wisdom of the Bible, the Hindu Upanishads and the early Christian Desert Fathers.John Main wrote several books on contemplative prayer before he died in 1982, but this collection is the only one to draw the essence of all his teachings into one volume. Paul Harris has devotedly selected the essential extracts from each of John Main's works and arranged them here in an attractive and practical daily readings format.

"Learning to meditate is the most practical thing in the world. You require only one quality when you begin. That is seriously to want to learn to mediate."The central message of the New Testament is that there is really only one prayer and that this prayer is the prayer of Christ. It is a prayer that continues in our heart day and night. John Main describes this prayer as the stream of love that flows constantly between Jesus and his Father. This stream of love is the Holy SpiritIt is John Main's conviction that is it the most important task for any fully human life that we should become as open as possible to this stream of love. In order for us to do this we must learn a way that is a way of silence - of stillness - and this by a discipline that is most demanding.John Main talks about the many aspects of silent prayer: the way of the mantra, leaving distraction behind, fullness of life in love and silence. A striking feature of the book is its emphasis on simplicity, on transcending self-consciousness and moving beyond "techniques" of prayer.

In this, the last book he wrote before his death, the spiritual writer John Main characteristically turns to the source and focus of all his inspirational teaching about prayer - the presence of Christ. He writes, 'Learning to meditate is the most practical thing in the world. You require only one quality when you begin. That is seriously to want to learn - The central message of the New Testament is that there is really only one prayer and that this prayer is the prayer of Christ. It is a prayer that continues in our heart day and night'. A striking feature of the book is its emphasis on simplicity and moving beyond 'techniques' of prayer.

Much of today's fascination with and attraction to the Rule of St. Benedict can be attributed to John Main, a Benedictine monk, who first saw that this rule of life for monastic communities could be relevant for Christian living in the secular world. He founded a community of lay people who shared his vision and from this small beginning has grown. The World Community for Christian Meditation which today is active in numerous countries around the world and has thousands of members and associates. Its work, and its emphasis on meditation, derives directly from the Benedictine focus on prayer and lectio divina or holy reading. Right up to the end of his life in 1982, John Main wrote a series of remarkable letters of spiritual direction to WCCM's growing family. Two collections have previously been published and are now out of print and the complete letters are now published in this single volume. Together they constitute a volume of remarkable spiritual wisdom and insight, as fresh and relevant for today as when they were first written.

Much of today's fascination with and attraction to the Rule of St. Benedict can be attributed to John Main, a Benedictine monk, who first saw that this rule of life for monastic communities could be relevant for Christian living in the secular world. He founded a community of lay people who shared his vision and from this small beginning has grown. The World Community for Christian Meditation which today is active in numerous countries around the world and has thousands of members and associates. Its work, and its emphasis on meditation, derives directly from the Benedictine focus on prayer and lectio divina or holy reading. Right up to the end of his life in 1982, John Main wrote a series of remarkable letters of spiritual direction to WCCM's growing family. Two collections have previously been published and are now out of print and the complete letters are now published in this single volume. Together they constitute a volume of remarkable spiritual wisdom and insight, as fresh and relevant for today as when they were first written.

We take it for granted that aspects of monastic life can sustain our daily lives in the world, but we owe this understanding to John Main, a Benedictine monk who pioneered the idea that the desert tradition of meditative or contemplative prayer, which had largely been forgotten in the West, was for all Christians.At his monastery in London, he started teaching this way of prayer to lay groups and a network of meditation groups came into being, quickly spreading throughout the world and renewing a sense of the Church as a fellowship rooted in prayer and contemplative action. Bestselling books soon grew out of his talks. This simple, practical guide to 'pure prayer' teaches that by ceasing to struggle to find words and images by which we all too easily try to control God, we give God freedom to be himself in our hearts and we begin to pray with 'the mind of Christ', as St Paul teaches. In a nervous world saturated with image and endless self-commentary, this is a nourishing, life-giving stream of hope and refreshment.

The Benedictine monk John Main is acclaimed as one of the great spiritual teachers of the 20th century, restoring to the Church its historic contemplative dimension and opening up the monastic tradition to men and women living in the world. His teachings still continue to lead people in the way of silence, stillness and simplicity which are so much needed in our modern world. Here he opens up deeper insights into the kind of prayer that enables us to bring the whole of our being to God, and to let the power released into the world by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus flow through our hearts and into the world.