Father Laurence Freeman is head of the World Community for Christian Meditation and he’s a Benedictine monk from the Monastery of Christ the King in London.
It’s an independent Roman Catholic Monastery that professes vows of stability in community, conversatio morum (conversion of life through celibacy, simplicity and other monastic disciplines) and obedience.
Father Laurence travels the world promoting the practice of Christian meditation and says it’s very enjoyable, a wonderful gift to me really – I have a wonderful life.
He’s travelled an interesting path to this point in his life. After graduating from Oxford with a Masters degree in English Literature, he tried his hand at Journalism and later worked at the United Nations in merchant banking. He then decided to spend six months in a monastery to learn about meditation and says he decided it was what he wanted to do full-time.
“I felt I had lost my ambition to be the greatest journalist in the world
or the richest merchant banker in the world so I decided to become a monk.”
Father Freeman is in Mount Isa to hold talks and discussion sessions about meditation.
…I felt I had lost my ambition to be the greatest journalist in the world or the richest merchant banker in the world so I decided to become a monk.
“Particularly focusing here on the teaching of children to meditate because that’s one of the great things that’s been happening in the Townsville dioceses. We’re going to take what we’ve learned about teaching children to meditate to the rest of the world.”
He says a child is ready to meditate, they’re kind of born into this. “It’s a great gift for the rest of their lives.”
Meditation is a universal spiritual practice and wisdom, says Father Freeman. “You find it in all the religions of the world, and it’s just that Christians seem to have forgotten or lost touch with their own deeper spiritual tradition of prayer meditation.”