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Jesus Christ
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What is Meditation?
Meditation is not the emptying of one's mind and spirit to see what may enter, as commonly taught in some circles. Rather Christian meditation is the filling of one's mind and spirit with the God of the Bible who entered the world redemptively in Jesus Christ..
J. I. Packer expresses this well in his book Knowing God:
"How can we turn our knowledge about God into knowledge of God? The rule for doing this is demanding, but simple. It is that we turn each truth that we learn about God into matter for meditation before God, leading to prayer and praise to God.
We have some idea, perhaps, what prayer is, but what is meditation? Well may we ask; for meditation is a lost art today, and Christian people suffer grievously from their ignorance of the practice. Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God. It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God, as a means of communion with God. It's purpose is to clear one's mental and spiritual vision of God, and to let His truth make its full and proper impact on one's mind and heart. It is a matter of talking to oneself about God and oneself; it is, indeed, often a matter of arguing with oneself, reasoning oneself out of moods of doubt and unbelief into a clear apprehension of God's power and grace. Its effect is ever to humble us, as we contemplate God's greatness and glory, and our own littleness and sinfulness, and to encourage and reassure us - 'comfort' us, in the old, strong, Bible sense of the word - as we contemplate the unsearchable riches of divine mercy displayed in the Lord Jesus Christ. ...And it is as we enter more and more deeply into this experience of being humbled and exalted that our knowledge of God increases, and with it our peace, our strength, and our joy. God help us, then, to put our knowledge about God to this use, that we all may in truth 'know the Lord'." (Knowing God, p 18-19)
Pat McKitrick has been a long time friend and teammate with Outreach Canada, the mission with which Carol and I served for many years. This mission, as true of most others, is populated by activists, myself included. Pat was a gift to us in challenging us to keep to a healthier balance in the inward and outward journeys.
During a team meeting in 2003, as Pat rightly pressed us to devote more time to personal and team refection, someone, in good-natured jest, "appointed" Pat to serve as head of Outreach Canada's “Department of Meditation and Contemplation” - an appointment which Pat took seriously. He began to share his reflections on Scripture and the inner journey leading to strength for the outward journey, and it's my pleasure to commend this sampling to you also. I hope you appreciate, in addition to Pat's deep and thoughtful devotion to Christ, his honesty, wry humor and occasional self-depreciation...
1. On Meditation 5. Reverberating through Eternity
8. Unemployed
9. Rejoice
10. Music of Heaven
11. Trust and Praise
13. St. Patrick (the other one)
14. A Love Story
16. Arguing with God
18. Birds of the Air
21. Fear Not 22. Least of These
23. Communion
25. Surprised by Joy
26. Art of Joy
27. Presence of God
30. Soul Care
31. God at Work
33. Poetry in War
34. What is Prayer?
35. Heaven
36. Believer, Atheist, Agnostic
37. Wealth
39. Living in Hope
40. Temptation
41. Renewal 43. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
44. Peace
46. Bonhoeffer
47. Aquinas on God
50. Trusting God in the Hard Times
52. Law and Grace
53. A Rainy Season
55. In the Beginning
56. Feeling Not the Lord's Presence
58. Bones
59. Word of God
