Christian Meditation is an ancient way of spiritual growth, a way of spiritual health that may not be easy, but is incredibly simple and powerful. This is the way of contemplative prayer or of meditation - a daily personal discipline, a practice of stillness and simplicity available to each of us. Not as a substitute for all the other form of prayer, but as a center for them. Like the still hub of a wheel centers its spokes and makes possible the wheel's motion and stability.

This way of prayer is deeply rooted in our own Christian tradition - in the gospels and in the teachings of the very early Church, particularly through the Desert Fathers and Mothers. But while the roots are deep and still living, the vine has not exactly flourished over the centuries. The tradition is effectively absent and is not only not remembered and not taught, but misunderstood, imagined to be foreign, from someone else's tradition, like the Buddhists. Or if it is recognized in our tradition, it's seen as suitable for a few odd folks in habits and hoods hanging around 14th century monasteries. Certainly not the stuff of everyday Christian men and women living and working in the real world.

But the good news is that one of the most significant developments in the last 50 years has been the recovery of this tradition in the West as a truly Christian way of spirituality, and as a way for anyone, for each of us.