Laurence Freeman

For more than a decade, members of the World Community for Christian Meditation have received Daily Wisdom - a brief yet profound reflection from Laurence Freeman, a Benedictine monk and the community’s spiritual guide. In just a few sentences each day, these wisdom texts offer a touchstone for a more mindful, reflective, and less reactive approach to life’s challenges. In this carefully curated collection, readers will find 366 of the most resonant reflections, chosen with the help of Daily Wisdom recipients. Designed to inspire throughout the year, this book offers daily inspiration. These short and powerful texts can be returned to again and again-whether to begin the day with clarity, find a moment of stillness, or seek perspective in a restless world. Accompanied by Laurence Freeman’s evocative photography, these pages invite you into his own daily rhythm of wisdom, presence, and peace.

'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.

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.

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 Main Winner at the Catholic Press Association Awards: Popular presentation of the Catholic faith 2nd prize

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.

Many people today have a deep spiritual thirst and hunger that in many ways is as urgent as the material needs of developing nations. Unless affluent societies escape the addiction to materialism, they will be unable to feel the depth of compassion from which works of mercy and justice spring. Laurence Freeman teaches a way to spiritual health that is both ancient and new. The desert fathers practiced silent prayer and the church in our own day has rediscovered its liberating power. To sit down before God in silence does more than empty our minds of our own concerns. It opens us to the mystery of life, to seeing thing from God's perspective rather than our own limited viewpoint, to the power of faith that heals and raises us to love God and our neighbour.

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.