John Main: A Biography by Paul T Harris

Author:Paul T Harris [Paul T Harris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Medio Media
Published: 2014-08-30T16:00:00+00:00

Return to London:

The First Meditation Centre

Recalled by his abbot to Ealing Abbey, John Main traveled to London via Australia, where he visited the grave of his brother Allan Patrick, and arrived home in the summer of 1974.

Now convinced he had found his true role in the Benedictines, the teaching of Christian meditation, he renewed his study of Cassian and the early desert monks. Much to his delight he found that St Benedict himself had urged his monks to read and absorb Cassian’s conferences on prayer and the spiritual life.

Exhilarated by the discovery in Cassian of this tradition of contemplative prayer, John Main immediately received permission to establish a small lay community at Ealing on the monastery grounds, which would incorporate into its life the daily practice of meditation. Before long a group of six young men were attracted to the community including Laurence Freeman, who later came with John Main to establish a monastic and lay community in Montreal.

One of the six, Tom Abraham, recounts his first meditation meeting with Father John. Says Tom:

When he began to speak about meditation it was with authority and assurance and no pussyfooting around. His message was clear, simple and straightforward. This was the teacher I had been looking for. All I can say is that the way of the mantra, that great leap of unconditional love, changed my life forever. 25

And what was his message on prayer? One of authenticity and simplicity!

… all Christian prayer is a growing awareness of God in Jesus… . And for that growing awareness we need to come to a state of undistraction, to a state of attention and concentration – that is to a state of awareness … the only way that I have been able to find to come to that quiet, to that undistractedness, to that concentration, is the way of the mantra. 26

Perhaps what distinguishes John Main as a teacher of prayer is his insight into the necessity of knowing how to pray. It is well to remember that we can read great exponents of contemplative prayer like St John of the Cross, St Teresa of Avila and Thomas Merton without ever coming to a clear understanding of how they themselves prayed. Perhaps John Main’s greatest gift to those of us struggling to pray in the 21 st century is his ability of explaining the ‘how to’ as follows:

The most important thing to know about meditation is how to meditate. It is also important, I suppose, to know why you should meditate, but in the first place you must know what to do. Let me remind you of this again so that you are as clear as possible in your minds about it. Choose a place that is as quiet as you can find. As far as posture is concerned, the basic rule is to sit with your spine upright. Sit down, either on the floor or in an upright chair, and keep your spine as erect as possible. Close your eyes gently.

To meditate

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