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Outreach of The World Community for Christian Meditation

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A contemplative approach to improving well-being for students

November 13, 2017 by Leonardo Correa Leave a Comment

By Ernie Christie

Don’t be afraid. Do not be satisfied with mediocrity.
Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.

St. John Paul II

St. John Paul’s well known quote could easily be included in the mission statement of a school that took the teaching of contemplation to be its core business. In a continually, ever distracted world, it must be an imperative to teach the youth of today and tomorrow to be attentive through the formation of schools that have at their centre a contemplative heart.

Schools today, anywhere in the world, are busy places. Teaching is often reduced to rushing through a crowded curriculum, being hostage to high stakes testing and responding to the next big issue that the media throw up. Increasingly complex issues such as cyber safety and use of technology or developing a healthy lifestyle can be suddenly thrust into the domain of the school. It is no surprise that educators and students become overloaded and stressed as they deal with so many stimuli bombarding them daily.

There can be another way! Rather than the pursuit of higher, faster and stronger, schools can strive for deeper, slower and wiser. Educators can encourage their students to, ‘put into the deep’ and introduce them to another way of being. To actively teach contemplative practices may seem counter-intuitive or counter-cultural to being able to function effectively in a world that is full of noise and is always speeding up. I hope, however, that you will be convinced that the well-being of your students depends on a radical, reimagined way to approach education, now and into the future.

The world teaches children a set of values. But are these values conducive to the making of a better world? Our Western culture invites excitement, not silence, and activity, not stillness. As a result children of all ages are often stressed, over-stimulated and restless. The culture we live in may suggest the solution to this inner and outer restlessness lies outside of oneself in the pursuit of a bigger and more exciting life. This way of living creates pressures that force our children to compartmentalize their lives too rigidly. As a result, they may lose a sense of their own personal wholeness and a capacity to engage fully with the world as balanced human beings.

For those of us in education working at the coalface of young people’s development and well-being, the issues of overstimulation and constant pressure are particularly evident. More and more children display signs of depression, extreme agitation and lack of ability to focus their attention. In my own corner of the world in Townsville, North Queensland, Australia, we have adopted a contemplative form of prayer, Christian Meditation, which we have decided to teach in our schools to all students from ages four to 18.

Over the past 14 years, we have intentionally, in an experiential way invited and taught our students to journey more deeply within their prayer practice. The results have been startling. The most significant finding has been that children love to meditate. It is something they look forward to daily and even ask their teachers to do it. We want to encourage a new vision for a society that locates the teaching of stillness and silence
at the heart of education. It is vital that education responds to such social challenges by presenting and teaching an alternative way of being. Almost everything that children experience in the world today inhibits that journey inward towards stillness and silence; indeed, it may seem a paradox that children can be still and silent and enjoy it. However, like adults, children also yearn for the experience of an interior world that helps buffer against the hustle and bustle of a hurried life.

On the world stage, in 2012 Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury gave an address to the Synod of Catholic Bishops on The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith. In this address he provided a clear annunciation of the concept of contemplation, which I believe frames the issues very clearly. ‘In this perspective, contemplation is very far from being just one kind of thing that Christians do: it is the key to prayer, liturgy, art and ethics, the key to the essence of a renewed humanity that is capable of seeing the world and other subjects in the world with freedom – freedom from self-oriented, acquisitive habits and the distorted understanding that comes from them.’ To put it boldly, contemplation is the only ultimate answer to the unreal and insane world that our financial system, advertising culture, and chaotic and examined emotions encourage us to inhabit. ‘To learn contemplative practice is to learn what we need so as to live truth fully and honestly and lovingly. It is a deeply revolutionary matter!’

My experience after years of teaching educators to teach children to meditate has been truly life giving. I have witnessed personally the transformation of the educator who teaches contemplation and the students who are opened to learn to be still and silent. I cannot tell you for certain that our children are healthier than children anywhere else in the world, but I can categorically say that their well-being is enhanced by regularly practising Christian Meditation as contemplative prayer. The task of teaching meditation to children may seem a daunting one, but I want to share my story in the hope that you will see that the opportunities are far greater than the obstacles. Sister Madeline Simon, in her book Born Contemplative says that ‘children have a natural inclination to be contemplative; they only need the chance to be led there; the space to experience what is natural to them.’

Pope Francis provides a clear way forward. He has made the spiritual development of children and young people a central focus of his papacy, a work that should be the work of the Church and all people of God. For schools and the noble art of teaching, his words provide the catalyst to forge ahead, to put into the deep and do not be afraid of the rich catch we will receive in faith when we have the courage to do something quite radical – teach children to meditate – simply do it!

‘Do not be disheartened in the face of difficulties that the educational challenges present! Educating is not a profession but an attitude, a way of being; in order to educate it is necessary to step out of ourselves and be among young people, to accompany them in the stages of their growth and to set ourselves beside them. Give them hope and optimism for their journey in the world!’
The path of meditation is a path of self-knowledge. To fully know ourselves we must go deeper, beyond the images today’s culture paints for us of the perfect being. We must seek peace in ourselves first. Teaching children to meditate, giving them the safe space to learn and experience this prayer of the heart is deeply transformational. I implore you not to let the speed of the world wash over us and our students. We owe it to the next generation of youth to lead them to the slow path: to the joyous insights of the contemplative pilgrim on the journey of life, to lead them to another way of knowing: another way of being.

Ernie Christie, Director of Catholic Identity, Learning and Teaching, Diocese of Townsville, Queensland, Australia.

  • Article originally published in Principal Connections (Ontario, Canada), Fall 2017, Volume 21, Issue 1

Filed Under: Education, Education, News Tagged With: children, education, frontpage, mediation, schools, silence, teaching

First Christian Meditation in Schools Day in Argentina: A Hope in Your Hands

September 30, 2016 by James Bishop Leave a Comment

A Hope in Your Han

On Saturday 24 September was performed for the first time in Argentina a Christian Meditation Day in schools: a hope in your hands, in Elmina Paz de Gallo School, Buenos Aires province.

In a climate of warm receptivity, the organizing team of The WCCM Argentina shared with attendees from seven schools and a representative from a diocese.

Discussed were the foundations of Christian Meditation as a practice of contemplative prayer and its teaching in schools, from the experience that has been ongoing for several years in two schools in the Greater Buenos Aires area: Instituto Niño Jesús (Child Jesus Institute, Santos Lugares) and Escuela Sagrado Corazón (Sacred Heart School, Lomas de Zamora), with the respective pastoral coordination of Gaston Diéguiz and Br. Daniel Impellizzieri.

Filed Under: Education, News Tagged With: argentina, buenos aires, children, meditation, schools, young

Hope for the Future – Meditation in Schools: videos are available

July 6, 2016 by Leonardo Correa Leave a Comment

Dr.Rowan Williams, keynote speaker
Dr.Rowan Williams, keynote speaker

The Meditatio Seminar “Hope for the Future: Meditation in Schools”, was held at Heythrop College, London on 29 June. The Seminar was fully booked withover 200 participants from education around the world. The keynote speaker Dr.Rowan Williams, Laurence Freeman OSB, Dr. Cathy Day and Ernie Christie (Townsville Catholic Education Office, Australia), Sister Ruth Montrichard (WCCM National Coordinator for the Caribbean), Paul Tratnyek (WCCM School Liaison in Canada), Patricia Por (WCCM National Coordinator for Malaysia) and Clare Marie Burchall (retired Head Teacher from the UK). A WCCM report on “The Heart of Education: Meditation with Children”, was presented by Jim Green who compiled the report. Briji Waterfield, WCCM Director of Special Projects, presented a trailer on “Share the Gift” – an online course for teachers.

You can watch all videos here or in the player below:

See a gallery with images from the Seminar here.

Filed Under: Education, News, Seminar Tagged With: education, frontpage, schools, seminar

Meditating with the Children of Antigua, February 2016

February 23, 2016 by James Bishop Leave a Comment

IslandsIt was way back in 2012 when we had our first meeting with Bishop Ken Richards, Bishop of Antigua and Barbuda. His diocese includes the English speaking Islands of St. Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, Anguilla and British Virgin Islands — all small territories involving much inter-island travel.

He was anxious to have Christian Mediation as part of the prayer life of the children of these islands, and in February 2016 we had the privilege of sharing this “gift” with the children of Antigua— like the other Caribbean Islands, not a large population but a welcoming one.

 

Antigua
The Island of Antigua, population 90,000, area 108 Sq. Miles.

The Bishop gave his blessing to our visit and put us in touch with Fr. Frank Power who arranged our visits to two schools in St. John’s, the capital city. There was little explanation needed at our first meeting with him on February 8th. He was Irish and had met Fr. Laurence in Ireland, and knew about Fr .John Main and Christian Meditation, so we were speaking to the converted!

First stop on 9th was Christ the King High School, a Catholic Secondary Girls’ School. Fr. Frank met us here and introduced us to the Principal, Mrs. Pat Collins, and Family Life Teacher, Noleen Azille, who accompanied us to the classes.

 

 

Sessions were done with 50 girls from the Twos and Threes (13-16 year olds) and the results were as always: the girls easily slipped into the silence, and at the end of the session the feedback was much the same: “I felt peaceful and relaxed,” “It was good,” “I was close to God,” “I would like to do this at home.”

When we got back to the Principal’s office and she asked about the session, we told her to ask the teacher who was with us, and she said she was amazed at the positive response and in particular at one girl who had a lot of issues and was always in the Principal’s office — that child was the most attentive and the most involved. Her remark: “If this can happen to that child, there must be something in it!”

On Thursday the 11th we spent the morning at the St. John’s RC Primary School where we did sessions with 60 of the grades 4’s, 5’s and 6’s. We were warmly welcomed by the Principal, Mr. George Imhoff, and participated in the morning assembly. Then to the “Religion Room” where the Religion Teacher, Mrs. Sylvia Christian, explained that she was responsible for religious education in these classes. She was happy to sit and meditate with the children and promised to use this Prayer of the Heart at the beginning of her classes with the children.

We ended our visit by introducing meditation to our hosts in Antigua and left feeling that, even though the visit was short, we were able to share the “gift” of meditation, especially with the children of Antigua. We are grateful to Bishop Ken Richards and Fr. Frank Power for making this possible.

 

Filed Under: Education, Uncategorized Tagged With: antiqua, children, schools

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