The Big Question. (Spirituality & Prayer)

by Francis , Kingsgrove, NSW, Wednesday, August 17, 2011, 22:08 (640 days ago) @ Brian Coyne

Brian I was cut off from posting to the forum hours ago when I was about to respond to part of your response to Warren. That waas the moment when a computer gremlin started preventing me from posting. After such computer travail, I usually conquer so here I am. In case it is still relevant I resume

We're simply never going to see all Christians one day engaging in some form of Christian yoga gazing blankly into space or contemplating their navels or the gentle sounds of their breathing. Where Benedict I think is wrong is that he seems to posit the problem as one of intelligence or brain power. I think the problem is more associated with the lack of seconds in a lifetime, or each day, to do all the things we'd like to do. None of us have time to study all the big questions: we're engaged in earning a living, bringing up kids, making our way in the world, getting our end in (for boys), gettin' a bit of lovin' (for girls), keeping warm and comfortable. I engage in a lot of "mulling" — or "meditation" — but none of it is involved with any of the metholodogies of John Main or Laurence Freeman. I suspect "Christian meditation" is never going to be part of the mainstream however much I also believe there is great good in the practise of meditation. And none of that is to dowplay the crucial role in society that people who do engage in those meditation methodologies do play.

As a child I was one of the simple folk. I had no education except what family and nature gave me so I was not an intellectual. I was simply me who knew I had being but not separate from the vastness of Being. I was in contemplation though I had not heart of John Main whom I now respect along with Laurence Freeman.

My father was a builder and he worked building houses in Brisbane. I, as a young boy, often spent time on the job assimilating the skills of the trade. My father worked away whistling whilst engaged in automatic execution of his skills whilst he was in contemplation of his being within something Whole. He was not a pious man and in things religious he was unintelligent yet I knew him to be in contemplation.

Jesus we are told was a carpenter's son and probably worked with his father. There is no evidence that he was highly educated yet he was contemplative.

After studies and ordination I was not regarded as academic material and, as my building skills had been used over the years, I was asked to volunteer for missionary placement in PNG. Much of missionary life is taken with construction work on building, road and air strip and lots of walking. My daily life was one of contemplation and that entered also into teaching.

As a simple boy and as a simple missionary I was a contemplative and mysticism was as it were natural.

I had never engaged in gazing blankly into space or contemplating their navels or the gentle sounds of their breathing and I never presented as an asian monk.

I might agree that "Christian meditation" is never going to be part of the mainstream but, it would seem to me possible as much as Benedict's type of submissively simple folk remained mainstream for so many centuries.

I hope that the Christian meditation movement through its practices of planned meditation will breed more a more people becoming contemplative but, I wonder if it has to be that way. Give it a go. We faithful, left without reliable leaders, can only give it a go.

Francis

My purpose is to remember the love that created me in God one with my brothers and sisters and with all life. My function is to extend that love and unity each moment to all.