Laurence Freeman, a Benedictine monk and priest, is the spiritual director of the World Community for Christian Meditation. He travels extensively throughout the world sharing the teaching on Christian meditation as recovered and develolped by his predecessor and mentor, John Main, OSB, (1926-1982).

He meets regularly with leaders of other religions and sees meditation as a way of forming community within the Christian family and among world religions.

Happily, we will be welcoming Father Laurence here in April to our diocese, in Gainesville and in Jacksonville, as he shares his gifts with us. (See box below.)

I first met Father Laurence during a Christian meditation retreat in 1993. After the first meditation period, I realized that what I found was what I had been searching for. I learned that in meditation, by repeating a prayer word to yourself, you turn your attention away from yourself — your anxieties, thoughts, regrets, fears, all the things that distract us — and you come to experience the silence and stillness of the spirit. It is this silence and stillness of the spirit, that we come to know ourselves, loved by God. Through this experience we become more loving people and a sense of community develops among those who practice meditation.

In his most recent book, Jesus, the Teacher Within, Father Laurence explores the question Jesus posed to his disciples, “Who do you say I am?” (Luke 9:20)

Listening to the question Jesus asks is as important for modern people as it was for his disciples. Father Laurence writes, “as one of the few individuals in human history who can be called by all peoples a universal teacher, Jesus is at the very least worth listening to ... And listening to this question will have a profound effect on a person’s self-understanding as well as a sense of who Jesus is.”

Gene Bebeau is a member of San Jose Parish in Jacksonville and frequently facilitates meditation groups at Marywood Retreat Center in Jacksonville

Jesus the Teacher Within - Wednesday, April 25
Gainesville

10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Chapel of the Incarnation
University of Florida Campus
1522 W. University Ave.
Gainesville, Fla.
Call (352) 372-8506

 Jacksonville

7:30-9:15 p.m.
San Jose Catholic Church
3619 Toledo Road
Jacksonville, Fla.
Call (904) 733-1630
Presentations by Laurence Freeman, OSB, on Christian meditation will include a discussion, a 30-minute meditation and a question and answer session.