The Bundaberg group is part of the Australian Christian Meditation Community, an arm of the World Community for Christian Meditation.

John Main recovered this way of praying in the Christian tradition by studying the desert Fathers and Mothers, in particular the 9th and 10th conferences of John Cassian (4th Century) and by understanding what Jesus taught about prayer.

Our group exists as encouragement and support to keep meditating, to enter the prayer of Jesus and to pray, act and love in his name.

Although at present the members are all Catholic we do extend a welcome to anyone from other denominations and in fact to anyone at all who has a desire to enter the silent presence of Jesus and pray this way to build community. We warmly welcome non-Christians also who have a desire for interfaith contact, prayer and meditation.

We can be found on the WCCM and ACMC websites or contacted through the Parish Office(4151 6666) or through Ian on 4152 8262.

Our prayer meditation meeting is held Monday evenings from 7.30pm until 8.30pm plus a social time after, those who wish to stay. It is presently held at a private home.

On a typical meditation evening we...

• Pray together our opening prayer
• Listen to a taped talk (5 to 10 minutes)
• Meditate in silence (20 minutes)
• Finish by praying together the Our Father and our closing prayer
• May allow for Comments, questions etc (5 to 10 minutes)
• Then have a social time together with a cuppa for those who wish to stay

Contemplative prayer is a gift given to all. Meditation is what we do to unwrap the gift.

The present Leader of the World Community for Christian Meditation, Fr Laurence Freeman OSB, describes a sincere form of prayer as any form of prayer where you are open to be changed by the prayer. When we meditate this is our call. Meditation is just one of the many ways of praying. However we are not seeking to talk to God or even listen to God but just to be with God. The fruit of meditation is that in God's time we become more compassionate, loving and merciful people and learn to follow Jesus more attentively. Loving service in the name of Jesus The Christ wherever an individual is called is at the heart of Christian meditation.

There is a difference between meditating as a technique and meditating as a spiritual discipline. When meditating as a technique you and your ego employ methods to achieve a desired result. When meditating as a spiritual discipline you are allowing God to do what God wants to do when God wants to do it. Essentially you are heeding the Psalmist's call to "Be still and know that I am God" and following Jesus call to "Leave self (ego self) behind".

To meditate

You simply sit upright in a straight-backed comfortable chair, close your eyes and interiorly (not audibly) recite a prayer word (mantra) over and over in your mind for 20 minutes to half an hour. John Main recommends the Aramaic word Maranatha broken into 4 syllables that naturally fits to your own breathing pattern. You may want to use as your prayer word Jesus, Abba, or Yahweh, etc.

You will be distracted and your mind will wander. All you do is choose to come back to your mantra each time you realize that you are distracted. Success at maintaining your word is not important but only the fidelity to keep starting again. Remember it's your ego that wants success but gradually transcending your ego is the way and journey to be followed. John Main recommends twice-daily meditation (am, pm), so as with all prayer forms and disciplines (discipline-ship - discipleship) it requires some creative steps to be taken to pray this way consistently.