Laurence Freeman - Böcker

'Those who want to save their life will lose it; and those who lose their life for my sake will find it' (Matthew 16.25). We often associate Lent with 'giving something up', but it is also a good time to begin or to deepen the practice of meditation.Through this ascetic discipline, we enter into the tradition of the Desert Fathers and, as we learn to nurture the silence within, come to experience joy and well-being in every area of our lives.This book is a practical introduction and guide to Christian meditation as taught by Fr John Main and continued through the World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM).It contains meditation instructions, guidance and support as well as 46 enriching daily reflections on the Gospels, highlighting an aspect of their meaning and their continued relevance for modern living.

Contemplation can and will transform the lives of busy working men and women in a turbulent world. Books on meditation and contemplation are numerous but the huge success of Laurence Freeman's book and his organisation show that he has something to offer which is entirely distinctive. God for the author is not a funk hole or an oxygen tank. We cannot escape the realities of our lives by swallowing pills or lying on a psychiatrist's couch talking endlessly about ourselves. Christianity needs to restore its contemplative dimension, and stop arguing about women priests, civil partnerships and the apostolic succession. God is within and is accessible to all. Through 'The World Community for Christian Meditation' as in this book, Fr Freeman goes out to meet busy people involved in industry, education, ecumenism, the caring professions. For he believes that society can be transformed by the transformation of the hearts and minds of ordinary mortals, who do not have to be cloistered behind monastic walls.

While many people have problems with the church - including most churchgoers - the person of Jesus is an indispensable force in the achievement of any authentic spirituality. The conflict between faith and experience is eased in the rediscovery of the essential unity and simplicity at the heart of Jesus' teachings. Embarking on this journey of rediscovery, this book takes as its starting point a question that Jesus himself asked his disciples, 'Who do you say I am?' For the many Christians who have never taken this question seriously, Laurence Freeman explores this question in the light of some of the big issues of religious understanding:the historical reality of Jesus, the experiential reading of the Scriptures, personal conversion,the inner journey.

The contemplative tradition in Christianity traces its origins back to Jesus himself, who frequently withdrew to quiet places to pray, and it has nourished and challenged disciples in every generation since.Journey to the Heart is an in-depth and richly illustrated exploration of Christian spirituality by some of today's leading spiritual writers. From New Testament times to the present day, it reveals the life and teachings of the greatest Christian mystics including: · Jesus, St John and St Paul· The Early Church Fathers – Clement, Origen, Gregory of Nyssa· Desert Mothers and Fathers · the Monastics – Benedict, Francis· the early English mystics – Julian of Norwich, Marjorie Kemp and Walter Hilton· the European tradition – St John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Meister Eckhart · the poets – Traherne, George Herbert· modern day mystics – Merton, Bede Griffiths, John MainWinner at the Catholic Press Association Awards: Popular presentation of the Catholic faith 2nd prize

Fully Alive is a previously unpublished book by John Main, one of the 20th century's most influential spiritual teachers, who reintroduced to the contemporary church the practice of contemplative prayer - a tradition that had been lost since the era of the Desert Fathers.John Main's teaching is striking for the depth and richness of its simplicity. This is a practical prayer companion for every stage of the contemplative pilgrimage.At a time when religious faith is often seen as socially embarrassing, and many Christians underestimate the mystery and wonder of their own tradition, John Main is a challenging teacher. He is deeply traditional and his faith is personal, heartfelt and explicit. He issues a demanding yet realistic call to practise regular meditation as a spiritual discipline so that silence may do its radically transformative work and reveal the meaning of goodness and love.During his lifetime, hundreds of groups gathered at his monastery to learn meditation from him and this book is based on his talks to them. His words are directed not to more words and thoughts but to entering the experience of silence in regular times of practice.Today, through the worldwide family of prayer he founded, the World Community for Christian Meditation, many thousands of people in countries across the world continue to discover the transformative effect of being silent before God.

As the leader of the World Community for Christian Meditation, Laurence Freeman’s calling takes him all over the world to teach and lead groups who want to practice contemplative prayer. In this spiritual travel memoir, he recounts timeless, memorable and moving stories of people, places and events in which he has encountered God ’s transformative presence. The title of the book comes from a Shakespeare sonnet and the book explores how the life of God can be found in the most unlikely places, not only in the world’s beauty but even in its tragedy.Slum priests quietly bringing hope to the favelas of Brazil, the gloriously fat stone ladies of Malta which are the world’s oldest depictions of God, the different effects of a mountain-top retreat on an investment banker, a tired social worker and a cancer patient, the impact of a child’s death on a whole community – these and many more stories movingly reveal how the sacred strains to find expression in every life, every place, every day.

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 now take it for granted that aspects of the monastic life can sustain our daily lives in the world, but we owe this understanding to John Main, whose vision of a 'monastery without walls' has grown into a worldwide network of people who today practice Christian meditation. This is his classic book on how to practice contemplative prayer, or Christian meditation. Stepping aside from the busyness of our daily lives and being still in the presence of God is the key to discovering our true selves and knowing God as 'the ground of our being'.

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 and writer, Laurence Freeman, took over the mantle of John Main after his death in 1982 and continues the work that he began, teaching Christians from all traditions the simplest way of prayer - meditation. It is simple in that it requires no words, yet encountering God without the safety barrier of our own thoughts and ideas is to open ourselves to total transformation. This collection of talks on Christian meditation is full of practical advice and great spiritual insights in equal measure. It shows how discovering the presence of Christ within through meditative prayer can give shape and purpose to everything we do and are: our actions, emotions, fears, longings, failings and dreams. As John Main taught, the point of this kind of prayer is to allow God's presence to become not just a reality, but the reality of our lives.