For some years now, the staff of Sacred Heart Villawood have set some time aside each week for prayer. It is perhaps the only time we are together with nothing else to do, and absolutely no agenda.  For our annual retreats, we have enjoyed many sessions of "meditation", and with this background, it seemed natural to take it all one step further and try it out with our students.

Our first step was to get in touch with the "Australian Christian Meditation Community", an ecumenical community dedicated to communicating and nurturing the Christian tradition of meditation, as passed on through the teaching of Fr John Main, OSB.

Before long, the School Executive were packing their bags and were off to Melbourne during the Term 1 holidays for a Conference led by Fr Lawrence Freeman, Benedictine monk and Director of The World Community of Christian Meditation.  Other speakers were Dr Cathy Day and Ernie Christie from CEO Townsville, who have initiated a diocesan-wide program to teach meditation to children from pre-school to Yr 12.

"Be Still and Know That I am God"

John Main believed that by experiencing Christian meditation for themselves, children would discover their true selves in their 'real participation in the reality of God."

St Ignatius of Antioch once said: "It is better to be silent and real, than to talk and be unreal." It could be said that Jesus seems to be in agreement: "In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think they will be heard because of their many words." (Mt 6:7)

John Main writes, "Prayer is not a matter of talking to God, but of listening to him, or being with him ... Only in and through silence do we become fully conscious." (Word into Silence p 22)

In practical terms, the teachers at Sacred Heart have all adopted the practice of a daily meditation period with their students. It only takes a few minutes. We hope to build on this and adopt the rule of thumb of one minute for each year of a child's age, eg. 5 minutes for Kindergarten, 6 for Yr 1 etc.

The process is simple. Children sit up straight either at desks or seated on the floor and lightly close their eyes.  John Main advised to adopt a mantra and we use the ancient Christian prayerword  "Maranatha" which clears the mind of distractions. Fr Lawrence assured us that being faithful to the mantra eventually has its rewards: "deepening fidelity to the mantra leads to a growing awareness of the divine presence within us."

Our first meditation sessions started at the beginning of Term 2 and although apprehensive at first, all teachers reported with great relief that the children responded beautifully, and now value their meditation time each day.

Meditation is a journey of faith and those further along the path assure us that there are many positive effects such as:

• Meditation leads to increased self-knowledge and self-acceptance.
• Meditation increases our desire to build community with others.
• Meditation deepens our personal relationship with God.
• Meditation reduces stress and increases our sense of wellbeing and harmony.

At this stage of the term, we believe we are on the right track.  We teach the children to be simple, still and silent and come to the realisation that God dwells within. "Be still and know that I am God."