“Consider all the innumerable things that can go wrong in our lives. Then reflect, what can undo these catastrophes? What can heal the inevitable wounds? In every case the answer is “the power of love”. Love it is that heals, that makes new, that fills us with hope, that delivers us from the prison of our own egoism. In meditation we learn to be still, to be calm, to be recollected and to become aware of the love of God’s presence in our hearts. This awareness arises from [God’s] revelation, not our manipulation. What we have to do, though, is to be still. [God’s] presence is not just another theory, some speculative theology. It is a dynamic personal presence that is to be found in the heart of each one of us, found if only we will be still. Stillness is the door through which we enter the state of transcendence that leads us into the greater reality.

Forgetting about ourselves and encountering this reality, entering into this presence is, quite simply, the most important thing in our lives. It is the supreme priority of each day and of each phase in our life because, once we do set on this path, every part of our life becomes energized with the divine love and this means that we are constantly healed. We are coming into a state of inherent unity. We are constantly being made whole and as a result we are continually discovering new courage to go on living with hope in the goodness of God, and with supreme confidence in [God’] plan being worked out in our lives.”

~ from The Heart of Creation by John Main

● A month or so ago I sent you four explanations and/or instructions of contemplative prayer (meditation):

Centering Prayer — Thomas Keating
Christian Meditation — John Main
Christian Meditation — James Finley
Passage Prayer — Eknath Easwaran

Perhaps you know of and practice another form of meditation. Please consider joining me and your H&H companions in making the commitment to continue or begin a daily contemplative practice. Whatever your practice, I recommend that this is how you enter into the silence during our H&H gatherings as well.

When I invited each and all of us consciously to “go deeper” this year, this regular practice of being still in silent prayer before God, what John Main calls “the most important thing in our lives,” was one of the ways I had in mind, one of the ways I imagined us descending into the cave of our heart and into the heart of God.

Might not this be one of those cases of daring to surrender and to “go where we would rather not go?” If there is resistance, consider “taking a long, loving look” at this. This might be one of the places where some of us need to do our work. After all, what is five, ten, twenty, thirty minutes with the “one in whom we live and move and have our being?” Maybe if we frame it as love— as does Main and all the mystics— we will resist it less.

Try scheduling this at the same time and in the same place every day and build the rest of your day’s schedule around this time to be still with God. Most meditation teachers recommend 20-30 minutes in the morning (and sometimes again before going to bed), but find the time that works best for you in your specific situation. Remember even five minutes of dedicated time is a start, even three, even one.♦

Be still and know that I am God.
Be still and know that I am.
Be still and know.
Be still.
Be.

~ Psalm 46: 10 ~

~ Dan