| CHRISTIAN MEDITATION AS AN ELEVENTH STEP PRACTICE |
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The World Community for Christian Meditation 11th Step Practice St. Mark's, Myddelton Square London EC1R 1XX England, UK +44 0207 278 2070 Email: info@christianmeditation11step.org www.christianmeditation11step.org |
| My name is Linda K. and my sobriety date is April 29, 1984. I remain active in my 12 Step Program of Recovery. Ten years ago I retired after thirty-one years of service as a flight attendant. The past fourteen years I have practiced as an LMT (licensed massage therapist) in the state of Florida. I am currently enrolled in a two-year online Christian Spirituality course at St. Thomas University Recently I made my second year promise to follow the Cenacle way of spirituality as an affiliate/companion to the Cenacle Sisters in Gainesville, Florida. Daily walks on the beach with Razzel Dazzel, a white standard poodle and therapy dog enrich my contemplative life in the joy of living. |
In the spring of 2001, at seventeen years of sobriety I attended an afternoon
presentation on Christian meditation. At the time I was agnostic and looking back,
rather proud of my non-Christian spiritual life in recovery. I had been meditating
in Eastern tradition since early sobriety and had never heard of Christians
meditating with a mantra in “silence, stillness and simplicity.” Up to that time the
12 steps of recovery had brought spiritual growth in my life and the promises were
coming true, yet I felt stuck in old behaviors. There was the perpetual inner
longing for more of “something”. It never occurred to me that my old resentments
against the protestant Church (which were later revealed to be resentments
against people, not Christianity) kept me blocked from the fullness of the
“Sunlight of the Spirit.”
My spiritual journey began at three months of sobriety after a spiritual conversion
that prevented a sober suicide and literally brought me to my knees…my first
surrender to a “higher power.” This gift, grace, (which at the time the word grace
was not in my vocabulary) was a moment of unconditional love, joy, and a “peace
that passes all understanding.” It is important that I share here that having a “vital
spiritual experience sufficient to bring about a psychic change” neither removed
defects of character nor produced spiritual or emotional maturity. The growing
pains of living sober with “instincts gone astray”, not virtue, brought about the
daily discipline of prayer and meditation.
There were no “musts” in Christian meditation, but suggestions – meditate twice a
day, say my mantra, and attend a group that would create community, “a sense of
belonging”. Although I was not a Christian at the time, there was an immediate
sense I had “come home” and I began the practice with great enthusiasm. Four
years after coming to Christian meditation the “journey to the heart” began to
heal old wounds that no amount of “work, working with others, working the
steps, or service work, could transcend. It was the “work” of the mantra that
called me home to know a personal God in the presence of Christ. I was confirmed
in the Catholic Church Easter of 2005. Today I have an understanding of the line in
the “Big Book” p 51 that says, “When many hundreds of people are able to say
that the consciousness of the Presence of God is today the most important fact of
their lives, they present a powerful reason why one should have faith.”
These words of John Main in Word Made Flesh sum up the true thirst of this
alcoholic: “We know ourselves loved and so we love. Meditation is concerned with
completing this cycle of love. By our opening to the Spirit who dwells in our
hearts, and who in silence is loving to all, we begin the journey of faith. We end
in faith because there is always a new beginning to the eternal dance of being-in
love.”
presentation on Christian meditation. At the time I was agnostic and looking back,
rather proud of my non-Christian spiritual life in recovery. I had been meditating
in Eastern tradition since early sobriety and had never heard of Christians
meditating with a mantra in “silence, stillness and simplicity.” Up to that time the
12 steps of recovery had brought spiritual growth in my life and the promises were
coming true, yet I felt stuck in old behaviors. There was the perpetual inner
longing for more of “something”. It never occurred to me that my old resentments
against the protestant Church (which were later revealed to be resentments
against people, not Christianity) kept me blocked from the fullness of the
“Sunlight of the Spirit.”
My spiritual journey began at three months of sobriety after a spiritual conversion
that prevented a sober suicide and literally brought me to my knees…my first
surrender to a “higher power.” This gift, grace, (which at the time the word grace
was not in my vocabulary) was a moment of unconditional love, joy, and a “peace
that passes all understanding.” It is important that I share here that having a “vital
spiritual experience sufficient to bring about a psychic change” neither removed
defects of character nor produced spiritual or emotional maturity. The growing
pains of living sober with “instincts gone astray”, not virtue, brought about the
daily discipline of prayer and meditation.
There were no “musts” in Christian meditation, but suggestions – meditate twice a
day, say my mantra, and attend a group that would create community, “a sense of
belonging”. Although I was not a Christian at the time, there was an immediate
sense I had “come home” and I began the practice with great enthusiasm. Four
years after coming to Christian meditation the “journey to the heart” began to
heal old wounds that no amount of “work, working with others, working the
steps, or service work, could transcend. It was the “work” of the mantra that
called me home to know a personal God in the presence of Christ. I was confirmed
in the Catholic Church Easter of 2005. Today I have an understanding of the line in
the “Big Book” p 51 that says, “When many hundreds of people are able to say
that the consciousness of the Presence of God is today the most important fact of
their lives, they present a powerful reason why one should have faith.”
These words of John Main in Word Made Flesh sum up the true thirst of this
alcoholic: “We know ourselves loved and so we love. Meditation is concerned with
completing this cycle of love. By our opening to the Spirit who dwells in our
hearts, and who in silence is loving to all, we begin the journey of faith. We end
in faith because there is always a new beginning to the eternal dance of being-in
love.”
| THE WORLD COMMUNITY FOR CHRISTIAN MEDITATION |