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 3rd 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 17th
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 19th
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!
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