| The World Community for Christian Meditation |
| Christian Meditation with Children |
|
| CHRISTMAS 2009 |
| TEACH YOUR CHILDREN TO BE IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD |
- A Jewish tradition has it that when the angels saw what God had done in the work of creation they
burst out with a song of praise that continues throughout time at the heart of all things. The story of the
birth of Jesus provoking another such cosmic outburst after the shepherds heard the good news
reminds us of how similar and different the new creation in Christ is. The mantra similarly sings in our
hearts in the epiphany of his birth in us.
The gospel story of the birth and infancy of Jesus contains a number of Canticles – the Benedictus of
Zecahariah, the Magnificat of Mary and the Song of Simeon - which have become part of the daily
prayer of Christians. These human acts of praise were probably composed in the early Christian
community as they pondered the mystery of Jesus and gradually penetrated its depths. Then they
were applied retrospectively in Luke’s gospel to the later accounts of his birth. This pattern shows
how prayer, liturgy and scripture weave the tradition of faith and it is this density of meaning that we
return to each year in the celebration of the Christmas season.
Human beings tell stories to make the meaning that we need to discover in order to live well. The
stories of scripture are different from the soap operas or even literary fiction with which we entertain
ourselves. The narratives of scripture, like that of the birth of Jesus, give greater returns each time we
recall them, so freshly intertwined are they with the stories of our own lives. Our deepening spiritual
experience, the raising and clarifying of consciousness that is the result of our meditation, is fed by
the Word that is alive and active. It also leads us back to scripture with a new hunger and capacity for
insight.
Christmas is a feast of meaning. Much of it is reflected in our cultural forms of celebrating at this time
of year – the exchanging of gifts that remind us that human relationships are based on giving not
bargaining or exploiting, the gathering of family and friends reminding us that we are not alone in the
solitudes of the human journey, the eating and drinking that remind us that celebration is natural and
necessary us. But all these depend on the personal experience of what Christmas is most essentially
about – the radical poverty and simplicity, the intoxicating proximity to God that our total dependence
on being reveals. The closer we come to this radical simplicity – which our meditation keeps us
moving into – the more we have to sing about. The fuller the song, the richer the silence.
Let us hold each other in our hearts as a community in this joyful season. May our sense of this new
creation restore us to the love of the earth needed if we are to repair the damage we have inflicted on
it May our life as community increase the energy of peace that our divided world is striving for as well
as the justice on which peace depends – the very wisdom that the newborn Jesus embodies.
On December 30th at the Retreat Centre in London we will be celebrating the gift of John Main to the
world on the 27th anniversary of his fully entering the light of Christ. On the website (www.wccm.org)
we will post a suggestion for a simple remembering that some of you might like to observe around this
time in your meditation groups.
With much love,
Laurence Freeman OSB
- Dearest Friends,
- All at once there was with the angel a great company of the
heavenly host singing the praises of God (Lk 2:13)