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Following on from 'A Deeper Approach to Christian Life and Worship through Contemplative Meditation, I offer this booklet in the hope that it will help to further the teaching of Contemplative Meditation in the widest sense. 

 

Forward

The theme of this little booklet is, 'The power of the Living Words of Christ'. The title is taken from one of our Lord's most well known sayings:  

'The Words that I give unto you, They are Spirit, they are Life'

I trust that by the time we have worked our way through these pages we shall be more ready to let the Words of Christ expand into Living Truth, not only by having already accepted them in our hearts and minds;  but also by receiving them into the deeper levels of our souls. 

To help this inner growth, the deeply hidden areas of the natural self must also be exposed to the Words in such a way that the lower human instincts and the selfish human impulses are redirected towards higher forms of expression. For when our inner natural life is in opposition to our conscious and outward stresses which weaken us and waste valuable energy. Within this deeper area of our being, where so much of our temperament is formed, the power of Christ brought to bear upon the conditions can quickly resolve these inner conflicts till our whole being comes into closer harmony with the Spirit and we are more at peace with ourselves. 

We need not be troubled when some of the later passages are headed by sentences which are not exact quotations from scripture. These sentences are condensed Truth taken from longer texts so that we may grasp and hold it more firmly as it can be more deeply absorbed in strength and power. 

The acceptance of Divine Truth should not be confused with auto-suggestion. We are not trying to convince ourselves of the actuality of something hoped for. In our case we are simply absorbing more deeply that which we already know to be Divine Truth, but which part of our lower nature still tends to resist. When we recognise this fact we are more easily set free from old doubts and fears and are open to Divine Intuition and Enlightenment from within. 

It also helps our spiritual growth if we develop our sense of awareness to a higher degree i.e. to increase our ability to notice the many and varied expressions of life in the world around us. For then our inner vision and sensitivity to the Spirit shall also be developed. Similarly when we quietly look at the Living Words of Christ we allow the Spirit within the Words to convey that element of Life to us, which is beyond words. 

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This excerpt is from THE WORD, THE SPIRIT AND THE LIFE 

A way towards Contemplative Meditation by Isabel Henderson, former President of the Fellowship of Meditation

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

  

 

 

 

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