ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI: CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER AND CONTEMPLATIVE LIVING

I suppose many are familiar with Francis view of Creation by which he contemplated God in all things – as St. Bonaventure wrote in his Major Life of St Francis (IX:1):

‘In everything beautiful, (Francis) saw him who is beauty itself, and he followed his Beloved everywhere by his likeness imprinted on creation; of all creation he made a ladder by which he might mount up and embrace Him who is all-desirable.’

But did Francis practice what we would call ‘contemplative prayer’ or did he live contemplatively?  What is contemplative prayer?  Is it desiring and gazing and allowing ourselves to be held in the compassionate gaze of God whilst all the while treating all those logismoi – distracting thoughts – that come to us as so many children wanting to distract or gaze?  Or is it certain practices – Centring Prayer, for example, or spending time before the Blessed Sacrament or an icon seeking to be still?  Do our contemplative prayer-practices ‘stand-alone’ or do we find that they begin to affect the rest of life?  Are we beginning to live contemplatively’?  What do we mean by ‘contemplation’?

"Sometimes I sits and thinks, and then again sometimes I just sits."

Contemplation
The root of the word concerns a space reserved for sacred purposes from the Latin word templum, a piece of ground consecrated for the taking of auspices, or a building for worship.  It has ben associated with a long thoughtful look at something and has been described as simply taking a ‘long, loving look at the real’ (Walter Burghardt SJ).  It could be described as a way of offering a balance to activism for it invites us to stop and focus our distracted attention.  It is a way to realise a sense of being at one with an-other and can be practiced by anyone.  The Swiss-born German artist Paul Klee observed: ‘In a forest I have felt, many times over, that it was not I who looked at the forest.  Some days I have felt that the trees were looking at me … were speaking to me … I was there listening … I think that the painter must be penetrated by the universe and not want to penetrate it.’  

Be still and know that I am God. (Ps.46.10)

Contemplative prayer
Contemplative prayer is one of the classic forms of Christian prayer.  Whilst Discursive prayer is a prayer using words where we talk to God and meditation a type of prayer where we think about God, contemplation is a type that does not use words or thoughts but a prayer-practice where we are simply with God. 

For some it is exemplified in the English tradition by the medieval work of an unknown author, The Cloud of Unknowing: ‘Lift up your heart to God with humble love: and mean God himself, and not what you get out of him… Try to forget all created things that he ever made, and the purpose behind them, so that your thought and longing do not turn or reach out to them either in general or in particular’ (Ch.3).  The writer then points out what had become clear to all contemplatives: ‘When you first begin, you find only darkness, and as it were a cloud of unknowing. You don’t know what this means except that in your will you feel a simple steadfast intention reaching out towards God. Do what you will, and this darkness and this cloud remain between you and God… Reconcile yourself to wait in this darkness as long as is necessary, but still go on longing after him whom you love’ (Ch.3).

‘For He can well be loved, but he cannot be thought.
By love he can be grasped and held,
but by thought, neither grasped nor held.’
(The Cloud of Unknowing, Ch.6)

Meditation
Contemplation is sometimes confused with meditation.  Meditation is a practice which uses a particular technique, such as a mantra, to focus the mind in order to train attention and awareness.  One mantric prayer used by St. Francis was the simple: “Deus meus et Omnia – my God and my All”.

“Whatever a monk keeps pursuing with his thinking and pondering,
that becomes the inclination of his awareness.”
(Buddha, Majjhima Nikaya 19,)

Centring Prayer is a name given to various forms of meditation designed to aid the development of contemplative prayer by preparing our faculties to cooperate with this gift. ‘It is an attempt to present the teaching of earlier time (e.g. The Cloud of Unknowing) in an updated form and to put a certain order and regularity into it.  It is not meant to replace other kinds of prayer; it simply puts other kinds of prayer into a new and fuller perspective.  During the time of prayer we consent to God's presence and action within’ (Contemplative Outreach).

Mindfulness
Rooted in ancient practices of Eastern and Western meditation this concerns focussing on opening the soul to God.  In secular terms certain practices are recommended in order to achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state.  Mindfulness has been described as ‘the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us” (What Is Mindfulness?, Mindful.org, 2014).  Is Meditation, which usually concerns openness to God through a loving inclination of the heart, the same as Mindfulness or is Mindfulness, primarily, a discipline focusing on developing inner freedom through practising certain techniques?  Or are mindfulness practices akin to the ancient practice of recollection which is the first step on the contemplative path?  Or are they two sides of the same coin?

All have their pitfalls, especially when they become focussed on perfecting techniques. It’s easy to forget that meditation needs to be understood in the context of the commandment to love God and neighbour – in fact, it’s all about putting self aside to centre on God rather than attaining a particular experience.  Living in a society where the self often seems all important Jesus teaching to put self aside and that those who seek to save their life will lose it – and those who lose their life for his sake will find it – are challenging.  As is his observation that whoever wants to follow his way must deny themselves and take up their cross.  This seems to make clear that we ought not to be too concerned with the perfecting of techniques but by the loving gift of self through our practice (Matt. 16:25f).

The orans mentale (mental prayer) of which St Teresa of Avila wrote in her Book of the Life (Chs.8-10) seems similar to aspects of Mindfulness.  But her practices were motivated by a desire for intimacy and “unknowing” (‘the soul’s profit consists not in thinking much but in loving much’ – Foundation 5.2), not for the benefit of the individual but for the purpose of the exercise of ‘good works’ brought about by loving desire.

Orthodoxy uses the word theoria to indicate beholding God leading to theosis, which is union with God through the ascetic practise of hesychasm, that process of letting the mind be enfolded in the heart to enable the sinful person to be changed, by grace, into a child of God.  It is connected with the desire to create a pure heart which enables the vision of God (Matt. 5.8) and, in the Christian tradition, is rooted in the cosmic Christ. 

Contemplative living
For some the practice of contemplative prayer/meditation is an important part of their life of prayer.  It is quite possible to develop such a practice separate from the rest of life – having a ‘quiet time’ can be important in a hectic life, but I wonder if it’s really possible to have such a distinction between contemplative prayer and contemplative living?   In New Seeds of Contemplation, Thomas Merton wrote: ‘Contemplation is life itself, fully awake, fully active, and fully aware that it is alive. It is spiritual wonder. It is spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life, of being. It is gratitude for life, for awareness, and for being. It is a vivid realization of the fact that life and being in us proceed from an invisible, transcendent, and infinitely abundant Source’ (New York: New Directions Press, 1962: 1-3). So Merton begins to invite us to consider practice contemplation in action which will affect the way we look at the homeless as much as the trees.

Later, in a survey (Robert Toth, The Merton Institute) most of those contacted defined contemplative living as ‘leading a less busy, more quiet life or engaging in certain practices such as meditation, centering prayer or yoga.  In the popular imagination contemplative living is still influenced by the close connection between contemplation and monks and nuns who leave "the world" and live in monasteries.’ 

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‘There are some profoundly important characteristics in Merton's interpretation of contemplative living that distinguish it from popular notions of spirituality.  First, it is specific in its focus on our four essential relationships.  Secondly, it asserts that our contemplative/spiritual practices lead us to a clearer understanding of our responsibility in these relationships.  Thirdly, it emphasizes that our everyday, active life is our spiritual life and that our contemplation should guide our actions; and fourthly, it provides direction to our actions that deepens and transforms our relationships in ways that are visible and measurable.  These distinctive characteristics of contemplative living make it tangible and easy to adopt as a way of life.’  (Contemplative Living, The Abbey of the Arts, https:///abbeyofthearts.com/blog/2007/07/29/contemplative-living/)

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That was clearly an impetus to the development of monastic life and would seem the cause for St. Francis’ Rule for Hermitages.  Richard Rohr OFM has said that ‘Creation itself was Francis’ primary cathedral, which then drove him back into the needs of the city, a pattern very similar to Jesus’ own movement between desert solitude (contemplation) and small-town healing ministry (action)’ (A Cosmic Mutuality, CAC, October 6^th, 2020).

Like others who heard the call to live with a deepening awareness of the presence of God in all things Francis found an example of the contemplative life in Mary the Mother of God.  She had listened to the Word, given birth to it in the silence of her womb and contemplated Him with a growing awareness of His identity as she became what she was called to be:

Hail, holy Lady, most holy Queen,
Mary, Mother of God, ever Virgin.
You were chosen by the Most High Father in heaven,
consecrated by Him, with His most Holy Beloved Son 
and the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.

On you descended and still remains all the fullness of grace and every good.
Hail, His Palace.
Hail His Tabernacle.
Hail His Robe.
Hail His Handmaid.
Hail, His Mother.
and Hail, all holy Virtues, who, by grace and inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
are poured into the hearts of the faithful so that from their faithless state,
they may be made faithful servants of God through you. 

Both Francis and Merton show that contemplation affects the one who contemplates and concerns living in true relationship with oneself, God, others – and nature.  As Fr. Richard Rohr OFM has written: ‘For Francis, nature itself was a mirror for the soul, for self, and for God.  Clare used the word mirror more than any other metaphor for what is happening between God and soul.  The job of religion and theology is to help us look in the mirror that is already present.  All this “mirroring” eventually effects a complete change in consciousness’ (Contemplating the Goodness of God with St Francis). 

Rohr points out that contemplative practices will affect the psyche to the extent that they can lead to a movement of the soul to want to live in such a way.  Finally, our own Fr. Gilbert Shaw said in a talk to the Sisters of the Love of God: ‘(God) has brought in the Kingdom.  There is nothing static about it: it is not an escape of the soul from the encumbrance of the body; nor is it a mystic consciousness of entities and experiences beyond the temporal.  It is the experience of the whole of life lived for the will of God’ (Paper on Contemplative Prayer).

VIRAL THOUGHTS 2 - THE SILENCE OF GOD (Part 2)

I ENDED THE FIRST REFLECTION by mentioning the way we’re all held in the Sacred Heart of God and need to open ours to him – to open our heart to the silence of God and enter that sacred, loving and creative space.  In a brief meditation that has touched many, the late Mother Osyth of the Anglican Benedictines at West Malling wrote: ‘Be silent, still, aware, for there, within your own heart, the Spirit is at prayer. Listen and learn, open and find, heart-wisdom. Christ.’  …  Remember, when you come to the heart of something – the centre of a wood, the vast expanse of stars in the Milky Way – or when you stop to really look at a painting, a landscape – or listen to a piece of music.  'God', said St Teresa of Kolkata, 'is not to be found in noise and restlessness, but in solitude and silence.'

APART FOR THE WORD spoken in Creation and through Mary, it seems silence is often the language of God.  But silence, for many, can be oppressive, which is why we need to befriend it and let the eye of our heart look beneath the fear, anxiety and despondency which can afflict us.  Look at what the Word has done in Creation; wonder at the stars, at the flower growing in the gutter, the song of birds and glistening of sunlight on leaves; and give thanks.  Only in silence can we realise a communion with creation which will take us beneath outward forms into the heart of being. And because Creation is alive, it is full of what we might experience as ‘good’ and ‘evil’. As I wrote in The Mystery of Faith:

‘Christianity also accepts that (these must co-exist) and what might appear to be random, sometimes chaotic processes are indispensable if we’re to have the universe we know (and we can’t know any other). ‘Good’ and ‘evil’ must co-exist; if things had been even slightly different, life probably couldn’t have emerged from primordial chaos.’ (Ch.2)

GOD ISN’T ABSENT, but we might have become absent to God.  Perhaps this is the time when we might re-discover a communion which is holy and not passing, where our heart needs to expand to encounter the depths of Divinity for which we were made.  When Christ cannot be present to us in the Bread of Life, we need to feed on that Word which comes from the mouth of God in the whole of Creation.  And that usually takes time and attention.

THE PROBLEM IS we often want God to be like instant coffee, ready-to-go, the panacea of our needs; we can pray for miracles, but we can’t depend on one – that’s the nature of a miracle.  God isn’t a Big Daddy who solves every problem; God is the fount of compassion, mercy and goodness, for God has shared in our suffering and lostness.  God is the well-spring of faith, hope and love who doesn’t ‘send’ war and pestilence; such things are the consequence of what it means to live in a world alive with life, a world where people have the freedom to choose how to respond; where there needs to be both light and darkness, where only suffering can reveal the depths of love. 

As we approach Good Friday, we might consider afresh what must it have been like for Jesus’ Mother at the foot of the Cross. There she stayed – there love stayed. Would we ever know the depths of love if there were no suffering? For suffering can bring compassion as well as bitterness and anger and can unite us with the heart of the Other.

FOR MOST PEOPLE, silence isn’t something they associate with prayer, something that happens in the silence of the heart.  I wrote about this in The Mystery of Faith in a section I called The Soul’s Desire, (p. 95): ‘Finding time for silent prayer can seem impossible but we can all develop methods of ‘everyday contemplation’.  A lot of the practices associated with Mindfulness have their roots in ancient traditions of Christian prayer – how to keep focussed, deal with unwanted distractions, develop an inner calmness and stop worrying – yet many think Christians don’t meditate or it’s only for monks and nuns.  But meditation and contemplation are the deepest forms of prayer for all Christians and it’s usually possible to find time when you can simply stop for a while and turn your heart to God.  On the train coming home from work, at times when you set an alert on your phone or as a clock strikes - all are ways of halting the busyness of life.  Here are some suggestions to help you develop your own practice:

              First, slow down. Cycle more slowly, walk more gently and learn to breathe deeply.

              Then stop and be, even for a minute.

              Next, pay attention. Be really present to whatever you’re doing and train yourself to pay attention – whether that’s to the person you’re with, the painting you’re looking at of the view out of the bus window.

              Take a long, loving look at the real. Go into your garden and take a long, deep, loving look at everything you see. (And if you don’t have a garden, gaze at something out of your window.)

              Engage your senses. Notice everything around you by utilising all your senses and give thanks for the presence of God in all things.

              And if you find that your mind is over-active – full of noisy parakeets flying all over the place – train yourself not to give them your attention. The more you do the worse they become.

                       

‘Prayer of the Heart’ engages the rhythm of our breathing to help us deepen prayer and can be practiced whenever and wherever you are. Simply ‘watching’ our breath as it descends into the heart is a profound form of prayer for it intimately connects us with the Spirit who animates all things.  Dom John Main, an English Benedictine, developed a mantra (rhythmic prayer) recommended by the World Community for Christian Meditation in which a single word is used – Maranatha (Come, Lord) for example.  Again, using the breath one silently prays:

Ma-ra … na-tha

A 19^th cent. Russian pilgrim, wanting to grow in prayer, was initiated into the practice of what’s known as the ‘Jesus Prayer’. There are several versions of this, but essentially as you inhale, say:

Jesus Christ, Son of God;

then:

have mercy on me, a sinner.

             

The prayer starts on the lips but needs to descend into the heart where it becomes united with its beat. Sometimes I use this mantra:

Sacred Heart of Jesus … have mercy on me.

Gently pray this 10 times then rest in the presence of God’s merciful Heart. Then repeat the process for 10 minutes. All these forms of prayer have three clear purposes. They:

                             - place the mind in the heart;
                             - open the heart to God;
                             - offer a means to deal with distracting thoughts.
                       

Knowing that we are enfolded in the heart of God, that we’re abiding in him (John 15.4) means that, rather than ‘saying’ lots of prayers, we’re to let go of the conscious ‘praying self’ and simply allow ourselves to become part of the great ocean of divine Love. And when the conscious self does intrude with its nagging commentary on life, to put it gently behind us where it’s out of our sight.’

MAYBE GOD IS SILENT, but that is the silence of God who is as Light hidden behind a dark cloud, love seen in crucifixion and peace which passes all understanding.  ‘God’ St Teresa of Calcutta, ‘is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence...

We need silence to be able to touch souls.’

For God alone my soul in silence waits;

truly my hope is in him.

He alone is my rock and my salvation;

my stronghold, so that I shall not be shaken.

In God is my safety and my honour;

God is my strong rock and my refugee.

Put your trust in him always, O my people;

pour out your hearts before him,

for God is our refuge. (Ps. 62:6-9)

MINDFULNESS AND THE PRAYER OF RECOLLECTION

‘The practice of Christian meditative Recollection eventually shifts into what (Evelyn) Underhill calls the prayer of Quiet, as the subject eventually stops the willed concentration on the object of Recollection and simply rests passively within this deep inner consciousness, free of all sensory and cognitive attachments.  Although Underhill speaks theologically of this condition as an awareness of the soul’s unity with its ground or ‘Pure Being’, she describes it as ‘an  almost complete suspension of the reflective powers’ that leads to a  radically passive condition that mystics have called in negatively descriptive language ‘ecstatic deprivation’, ‘nothingness’, ‘utter stillness’, ‘Interior Silence’, or ‘emptiness’. This altered state of consciousness is a kind of consciousness-purity that is not properly describable and is best characterized by silence. Although quite positively affective, mystics speak of the ‘naked orison’ or ‘divine dark’ of this state of consciousness purity, in contrast to the normal busy activities of the sensory-cognitive intentional mind.’

 From: EXPLORING PROCESSES AND DYNAMICS OF MYSTICAL CONTEMPLATIVE MEDITATION:

SOME CHRISTIAN-BUDDHIST PARALLELS

by Michael Stoeber
https://philarchive.org/archive/STOEPA-3v1

MINDFULNESS AND THE CONTEMPLATIVE HEART

According to much Christian teaching the heart is the centre of our being, the focus of our thoughts and feelings which is the locus of the soul.  This challenges a culture which has made the mind – the place of our reasoning faculties – the centre.  Much spiritual teaching has long been concerned with creating a ‘right – clean – heart’ for the heart can become corrupted and so needs to be re-fashioned, re-focussed.  I need to make sure that my heart is focused in God, the source of all goodness, and underlined the need to live a recollected life, a life where the heart, the habitation of the soul, comes alive. 

MINDFULNESS

The recent interest in ‘Mindfulness’, those practices which NHS online says can improve mental well-being, by ‘paying more attention to the present moment, to thoughts and feelings and to the world around you’, has connected with many people estranged from Faith.  Echoing Christian teaching ‘Mindfulness’ is the ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or over-whelmed by what’s going on around us. 

From its use in prisons and schools its benefits are becoming more widely realised.  Yet it draws on practices older than Christianity which, unfortunately, became generally forgotten at the Reformation.  Christianity has taught these practices as aspects of contemplative prayer, practices which encourage us to enter the caverns of the heart as we let go of our thoughts and feelings and descend to our soul.  Unfortunately, our Faith became caught by notions of ‘onwards and upwards’ rather than ‘stillness and descent’, yet the great mystics of the Church always knew that this was the better way.

This ‘prayer of the heart’ is one of the simplest ways in which we can open ourselves to that ‘ground of our being’ which lies beneath the surface of our lives.  It’s a way of praying which is intended to cultivate that interior silence which can calm the raging seas of life and we can overcome the fear of our own hidden depths.  It requires of us nothing more than developing a deep inner stillness and silence as we seek to focus into our desire for God.  At a time when people are beginning to waken to the importance of their inner world the Church needs to re-discover its treasury of contemplative prayer where we can find the most important ‘fresh expressions’ of our Faith which speak to the actual needs people have. 

St Paul recognised the importance of Mindfulness when he prayed that ‘with the eyes of your heart enlightened you may know what is the hope to which (God) has called you.’  The 3^rd century Desert Mothers and Fathers taught that we need to focus into a word which we can gently repeat beneath our breath, which is often spoken of as Centring Prayer; Lectio Divina, taught by the Benedictines, allows words of scripture to enter the heart, and in the 17^th century Brother Laurence taught the importance of living in the Present Moment.  In fact, these practices might be more rightly called ‘heartfulness’ for as St Theophan the Recluse, a 19^th century Russian monk, reminds us:

‘To pray is to descend with the mind into the heart, and there to stand before the face of the Lord, ever present .. within you.’

That reflects a far older teaching that if we gaze deep within our heart, we shall find there the ladder that leads to heaven. (St Isaac the Syrian)

THE HEART OF CHRIST

This reminds us that we need to give far greater attention to the heart.  We need to re-discover the importance of the Heart of Christ, the Sacred Heart of Jesus for His Heart reveals what our heart might be like.  ‘The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great kindness’ says the psalmist (145.8) and reveals aspects of the Heart of God which it can be so hard to incarnate in our lives.  Can I be merciful, compassionate and kind?   If that’s the nature of God’s Heart, and if we were created in the image and likeness of God, then this helps to identify what being human is all about. 

We resonate to these human qualities which pierce beneath the shell that we can build around us and invite us to fix our heart upon them.  Yet they’re only emanations of the nature of the invisible and unknowable God whose nature must be greater than these describe.   To fix the heart on the Heart of God involves deepening our desire to reflect the Sacred Heart which doesn’t just call us to devotion to its physicality, any more than devotion to Christ is about tribal loyalty.  Rather, devotion to the Sacred Heart slowly opens us to the fullness of divine life.  I want my heart, my life, to be like His.  That’s what makes the saints so attractive, for they are people whose lives reveal something of the attractive beauty of God. 

God gently invites us to ‘fix our heart’ on His, to be awakened by and to Divine beauty.  To cleanse our heart that it might shine with the beauty in which it was created.   To recollect this call, hear its echoes and resonances.  This fixing of the heart means I’m being drawn out of my-self into the Sacred Heart.   Yet the heart can be distracted, can become enslaved to another who will lead me away from the Light of Love and needs cleansing, liberating and renewing in the image and likeness of the Sacred Heart.

THE HEART OF THE OTHER

This drawing into the Heart of Christ opens my heart to want to encounter the heart of the other.  In fact, what I have found, like so many others, is that encountering the heart of the other – of all Creation – I find my–self profoundly moved out of that ‘self’ as I gaze on the other.  From the simplest leaf, tiniest insect or most fragile butterfly, to the grandest mountain, vastness of ocean or celestial panoply my heart is moved and drawn more deeply into desiring at-oneness with that ‘other’.  And in allowing my heart to be moved in this way I notice how my own sense of humanity is nourished and affirmed.  I am more ‘me’ as I allow myself to be embraced by the Other.  This seems connected to the way the early Franciscan, St Bonaventure, noted that the very universe is a kind of ladder for ascending to God (cf. ‘The Soul’s Journey into God’) only this is a ladder which takes us into the wonder of the Divine.

BEING AND BELONGING

St Francis of Assisi knew that at heart, we are intimately connected with the heart of all that is.   He taught that we are sisters and brothers with the whole of creation.  The reverence I feel when contemplating the stars connects me to them, for I am made of the same stuff; the fact that I am moved in my depths when I gaze on the animal world should remind me to reverence it - and if it doesn’t, then there is something wrong with my humanity.   If I am not moved it suggests that my heart is closed and needs awakening so that it can be fixed on wonder, love and praise.  I find my sense of belonging widens from the particular (this family, place, nation) to a greater sense of belonging as a creature in creation.  This seems to be what Jesus recognised as he reached out beyond the confines of family (“who is my mother...”) and Paul taught (“circumcision is nothing ... what matters is a new creation”) and calls us to have a heart large enough to embrace the whole.  Slowly the heart needs to break free of its constraints so that it can sing the song of freedom. 

This is what being a Christian is all about - realising myself as a new creation whose heart is fixed on mercy, compassion and love for all things.  I need to be ‘mindful’ of this calling – to recollect this attention in the depths of my heart so that I’m not given to distraction.  And when – inevitably – I am, to collect my attention to its roots in the Heart of God.  This needs to be my well-spring.  And even though I may have a particular love, it is that Sacred Heart of Christ which is to enable all my loving.  As I gaze on His Heart so mine can be warmed.  It can also be challenged to grow beyond the limits of the self; challenged to be renewed (“a new heart create for me, O God...”) and refreshed. 

THE HEART AND DIVISION

This deep and often unconscious yearning for union – at-oneness – which is endemic to our being as a part of Creation will inevitably find the notion of separation a threat and a challenge and it’s experience deeply disturbing.  Yet, at a deeper level, our union cannot be broken – I remain your brother or sister and a brother or sister to the whole of creation whether that is recognised or not.  That recognition was the great gift of St Francis and other saints and their insights need to be recalled at times when we experience brokenness.  The eye of our heart needs to be fixed on the Heart of God which enfolds the whole of creation as we pray: “may you be well; may you be happy; may you know the compassion of Christ.”

MINDFULNESS AND MEDITATION

At a time when people are beginning to awaken to the importance of their inner world the Church needs to re-discover its treasury of contemplative prayer.  Here we can find the most important ‘fresh expressions’ of our Faith which speak to the actual needs people have.  If we want to re-connect with them then why not begin by organising a contemplative prayer group – call it ‘Mindfulness and Meditation’ if you like, but let’s do something!