TABLET Education Small pockets of quietness
A pilot programme of Christian meditation will begin in schools in Britain this year. As Victoria Combe reports, it follows the success of a similar project in Australia where participating Catholic schools report improved levels of concentration in lessons as well as spiritual awareness
playtime, one boy strikes the chime three times and the children sit in silence, eyes closed. The teacher reminds them to let go of their thoughts by focusing on the mantra “Maranatha”, spoken in four equal syllables. This Aramaic word translates as “the Lord is Coming” or “Come, Lord”. The stillness is extraordinary. After six minutes, a minute for each year of their age, the teacher strikes the chime. The children, calm and refreshed, begin their maths lesson. This is the scene at 8.45 a.m. in the
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morning at Ryan Catholic College in Townsville Catholic Diocese, Queensland, Australia, where all 32 Catholic schools have pioneered a programme of daily Christian meditation. The diocese-wide programme, introduced in 2006, includes 12,000 children aged between five and 18. The teachers and pupils shared their experience in a film shown at a seminar in December 2010 in Regent’s College, London, where some 200 diocesan directors of education, teachers, students and school chaplains gathered. Run by Meditatio, the outreach of the
World Community for Christian Meditation, the seminar included presentations by Townsville’s diocesan director of Catholic education, Cathy Day, and the director of religious education,
class of six-year-old girls and boys sit on the floor around a candle and a simple chime. Grubby-kneed from
Ernie Christie.“We have seen a renaissance of religious vibrancy in the last four years,” Dr Day
began.They spoke at five other workshops in Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Midlands and their enthusiasm led to 65 schools agreeing to be part of a pilot programme in the UK introducing meditation to the classroom. For me, the penny began to drop when
Laurence Freeman OSB, director of the World Community for Christian Meditation, led the audience in 20 minutes of meditation. It was identical to the classroom routine for the six-year-olds except we stayed in our chairs. I wrestled with thoughts about shopping lists and train times but batted them away with the rhythmic, prayerful mantra. “The saying of the word is an act of faith,
we are not thinking about its meaning,” instructed Fr Laurence. Through this search for emptiness and nothingness, I did indeed find something intoxicatingly pure. Meditation does, however, need silence
and time, both of which are hard to find in a school day, and this concern was raised by more than one teacher at the seminar. Christie claimed that meditation “makes time” as the lesson becomes more fruitful.
A brief period of meditation can leave children calm and refreshed. Photo: Townsville Catholic Education Office
One maths teacher in Townsville Diocese even uses meditation in the middle of his class. The other resources needed are inexpensive. Dr Day cited that the diocese-wide programme cost AU$120,000 a year (£50,000) which pays for a retreat for 150 teachers for three days and for replacing them in the classrooms. “Is there prejudice against meditation as something New
Age and alternative?” I asked Fr Laurence in the tea break. Is it haunted by the clichéd image of a hippy in the lotus position chanting “Om”? “Less so than 30 years ago,” he said. “It is part of our work to remove that impression and reinstate the place of contemplative prayer.” The tradition is rooted in the Desert
Fathers, in the teachings of Cassian and in his own spiritual director, the late John Main OSB, who opened the first Christian meditation centre at Ealing Abbey in 1975. There is nothing alternative about Meditatio. Among the patrons of the World Community is Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, as well as the Dalai Lama. “Meditation”, said Fr Laurence, “is a
prayer of the heart where the Spirit prays within us. Children are more ready to embrace meditation, as they come without hang-ups about the terminology.” The Community’s mission, he explained, is to give children an experience of God which they will retain. The Bishop of Townsville, Michael Putney, another patron, believes that the spiritual experience is what stays with a child: “Young children have a great openness to the presence of God. If they are taught when they are young to be still so that their hearts can be open to the movement of the Spirit, they will have a gift which will continue to bring them great blessings throughout their lives.” One selling point for British schools is the
inclusivity of meditation. It is a practice common to most religions and can be described as “quiet thinking” for non-believers. About half of the pupils in Townsville Diocese’s schools are non-Catholic and all take part in meditation. Attending the seminar was Angela
Suthakaran, a 15-year-old Hindu and student of Trinity Church of England School in Lewisham, south-east London. She said she meditated at the temple,
S4 | TABLET Education | 5 February 2011
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