The Tradition of Meditation

Meditatio

The Tradition of Meditation

For a Time of Crisis

Laurence Freeman, OSB

Every time we sit down to meditate, John Main says, we are entering a tradition.  We can meditate outside of any spiritual tradition, but Fr. Laurence says it will always lead us back home where we belong, the heart.  Prayer today has become cut off from the heart and this, he says, is the crisis of religion in our time. 

The meaning of meditation in the tradition of the Desert Fathers is prayer, and prayer in this tradition is the prayer of the heart or continuous prayer: "stable tranquility and permanent purity of mind." That is the goal and the path we tread in meditation, bringing to life an ancient wisdom in the midst of our modern crisis.  We need to understand this tradition to be fully open to its transforming influence in our own lives, and to be able to hand it on to satisfy the spiritual hunger of our time.