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Contemplative Parish Project reconnects congregations with Christian meditation
"It means the Lord is coming in Aramaic, the language of Christ, and it's not the only mantra folks can use, but it is liberating, it's been liberating for me," says Rood, rector of the Episcopal Church of the Holy Nativity in Westchester, near Los Angeles.
He is co-director of the World Community for Christian Meditation's California Center, housed at Holy Nativity. The center's Contemplative Parish Project -- funded by a three-year $90,000 Trinity Wall Street grant -- is reaching out to reconnect congregations with an unclaimed spiritual discipline: Christian meditation.
People often associate meditation with other religions, but it is rooted in the Gospel and in early monastic prayer and contemplation, Rood says.
"Our goal in life is to be in God, and meditation is an important beneficial practice to experience what being in God is like. Most folks are so overscheduled and overly busy and meditation brings an important balance to one's prayer life," Rood said.
Busy and chaotic is how Kathleen Jones describes her life. "Lord almighty yes, my life is hectic," exclaims the director of family life ministries at St. Denis Catholic Church in Diamond Bar, and a faithful meditator. "I live in a 1,000-square-foot house with a daughter, a son-in-law, grandchildren, cats and a dog; it's a scattered life.
"If I have extra time in the mornings I just sit and do meditation for 10 minutes and it helps make a difference in my day."
For more than a year on Wednesday evenings, she has gathered with as many as a dozen others, assuming a comfortable position, listening to music and a brief talk about the art of meditation, praying for peace and settling into 20 minutes or so of silence -- with or without mantras. "Sometimes I just take a deep breath and listen and am still. And I can hear my heartbeat, I can hear my breathing, and it gets me centered again."
The meditation has fostered community among members of her weekly group, who trained with Fr. Frank Cassidy, a Roman Catholic priest who also serves as co-director of the center, an ecumenical endeavor. "When we first started, we rushed out the door afterwards. Now, we linger. It's brought about a lot more peace and serenity for us … everybody sits there and enjoys a feeling of peace," she said.
Peace, ecumenism and 'unique' spiritual friendships
Rood was a quick convert to the practice of daily meditation after attending a World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM) conference in Thousand Oaks, California two years ago. "I sat with some of the young meditators," Rood recalled. "One of them who was on his way to Iraq was involved in the human shield movement and practiced meditation before going, to help promote peace in the world."
Like Lucy Palomino, 82, who organized the center, Rood recognizes its potential for ecumenical work and peace and justice ministries.
Palomino says teaching the art of meditation led her to the Los Angeles County jail. There, she teams up with a Zen Buddhist to teach "a method of meditation for prisoners which would feel most comfortable to them. We visit the rows in the Men's Central Jail downtown and the Women's Detention Facility in Lynwood."
She said serving with the center has been "a growth experience" and hopes it will be a meeting place for ongoing Buddhist-Catholic dialogues.
On September 16, the meditation center's official opening in its new location drew about 100 people of various denominations. After a service of dedication and blessing, they browsed through books, CDs and tapes, prayer kneelers, gongs and other resources in the library.
What was Holy Nativity's rector's office in the bell tower above the sanctuary is now a comfortable room with couches, chairs and floor pillows available for regularly scheduled meditation gatherings at 12 noon and 6 p.m. weekdays and solo sessions other times. The center is open from 11.30 a.m. until 6.30 p.m. and is staffed by volunteers.
"Our intention is to offer daily meditation and courses in meditation and a resource library and tape library and who knows what else to help folks who want to learn more about this particular ministry," Rood says.
Through its Contemplative Parish Project the center staff also teaches a six-week series on Christian Meditation to congregations.
The hope is to assist them in becoming "monasteries without walls," to balance parish activities with their inner lives. Two-hour classes, taught by Rood, Cassidy and Palomino, begin with a brief talk "devoted to background and education, dispelling this notion that meditation is East Asian or non-Christian," Rood says.
"The talks are about the Christian roots of meditation and then we meditate for 20 minutes. At the end of the six weeks the hope is that we are raising up a contemplative group in each parish and theoretically leaders, people who can lead it."
The talks are the work of Fr. John Main, a Benedictine monk in Montreal, Quebec, who reintroduced meditation as a prayer discipline during the 1970s. He recorded more than 250 talks about the depth and importance of understanding the need for silence, stillness and simplicity in the daily practice of contemplative prayer. He believed the practice of Christian meditation creates community and peace in a divided world.
Thus far, about 19 congregations of various denominations have signed onto the contemplative parish project. "The hope is to continue to increase the number of parishes who invite us to come and teach the course and to reach out to the wider community," said Main.
The first year of the project "has been as you would expect it, a learning experience," he said, adding that he hopes to strengthen follow-up.
Ben Levine regularly attends not one, but two meditation groups. "The first time I encountered the works of Fr. John Main, I had never seen those two words together -- Christian Meditation…and my family thought it might be some sort of cult," said Levine, who helps market and coordinate center activities and who wrote the grant for the Contemplative Parish Project.
He said the average meditation group ranges between five and 10 people; the goal is to meditate twice daily. "Some groups have two people, some 20, the size doesn't matter. Meditation is a spiritual discipline for people with a strong spiritual will. The group supports the individual," said Levine.
"One time a week we are able to hear from others going through the same thing. A unique spiritual friendship develops."
"Society has people in a state of fragmentation, longing to come home to self and center where you reach a stage of integration and peace," agreed Cassidy. "Christian meditation is important because it brings about an inner integration through the work of the Holy Spirit."
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