Summer 2016 A Personal Introduction Penny Sturrock I n this first newsletter I would like to introduce myself as the WCCM International Coordinator of Meditation with Children. My name is Penny (Penelope) Sturrock. David, my husband, and I have been married for 43 years. We have 6 adult children and 8 grandchildren. I meditate with my grandchildren and I have learnt much from them, especially that we are all “Born Contemplative”. I am a lawyer by training but I no longer practise law. I discovered Christian Meditation in 1996 in my own parish and I sensed I was “Coming Home” to the prayer of silence I had experienced as a very young child. My commitment to the work of the WCCM deepened through a number of significant retreats, conferences and workshops I have attended over the years beginning with the Way of Peace in Belfast in 2000. I am a member of the WCCM School of Meditation Council and the Meditatio Council. I am always happy to receive reports of what is happening in the work with children and I look forward to your emails: [email protected] ◊ Inside A Personal Introduction 1 Coming Home and Homecoming 1 The Family Day 2 Meditation in Schools 3 Christian Meditation with Children & Young People Coming Home and Homecoming by Penny Sturrock In memory of Bishop Michael Putney, born to eternal life 28 March 2014. P erhaps the name of our website, cominghome.org.au, is a reminder to the adults who explore it and contribute to it that children are already “home” – it is we adults who must reconnect to it. “Home, in the deepest sense of the word, is where we are at one with others, where we feel most ourselves, where we can be ourselves, where we know others and where we are known, where we are accepted and are accepting. I think that is really the whole meaning of meditation; it is the whole meaning of the Kingdom of God. It is the whole meaning of our life: to come home, to know really that we are already at home, to be at home with ourselves. You know how often and how deeply Father John spoke about meditation as the way in which we are first of all restored to ourselves, come back into touch with ourselves, so that we can move out beyond our narrow limitations to others and to God.” (Laurence Freeman OSB “Aspects of Love”) One young Aboriginal boy in Australia summed this up when he said “Meditation is when I can just be me.” This ease with ourselves, being at home with ourselves, at one with ourselves is truly the Gift for Life that will change the world when the children we are educating today see and act in the world from a contemplative way of being. How do we do this? We share a time of Christian meditation with them, we meditate together and we Simply Begin Simply. ◊ “[People discovered God] when they were very very quiet on their own and felt a sort of peace and love they hadn’t expected.” Rowan Willians, in response to a child's letter about the origins of God.
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Christian Meditation with Children and Young People
This Spring 2016 issue includes A Personal Introduction, Coming Home and Homecoming, The Family Day, and Meditation in Schools.
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