Summer 2016

A PersonalIntroductionPenny Sturrock

In 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:

education@meditatio.co.uk ◊

Inside

A Personal Introduction 1

Coming Home andHomecoming 1

The Family Day 2

Meditation in Schools 3

Christian Meditationwith Children& Young People

Coming Home andHomecomingby Penny Sturrock

In memory of Bishop Michael Putney, born to eternal

life 28 March 2014.

Perhaps 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.

Christian Meditation With Chi ldren And Young People - Page 2

The Family DayAn Experience of Awe and Wonder

The caterpillar,

interesting but not exactly lovely,

humped along among the parsley leaves

eating, always eating. Then

one night it was gone and in its place

a small green confinement hung by two silk threads

on a parsley stem. I think it took nothing with it

except faith, and patience. And then one morning

it expressed itself into the most beautiful being.

Black Swallowtail, Mary Oliver, RED BIRD (Boston

Beacon Press, 2008),pg. 40

What has a caterpillar to do with Christian

meditation? A Family Day is a gentle invitation

to adults (as well as children) to “Slow down so we can

see”. A day in a garden or rural setting, offers an

opportunity for children, their teachers, parents and

grandparents to stop and marvel at the wonders of

nature, the mystery of life and to experience for

themselves “life in the dimension of spirit, as a mystery

rooted in the joy of being” (John Main, Monastery

Without Walls, pg. 3).

All that is needed are

some shared “won­

der” activities, a pic­

nic and the marvel of

a time of shared

meditation, however

short, with adults and

children of all ages

reminding us all the

we were “Born

Contemplative.”

Encouraged by other

successful “Family

Days“ held in

Australia and Brazil

and elsewhere, Stéphanie Barcet of France

(stephanie.barcet@orange.fr) writes “We gathered on 6

th February 2016 for meditation with 9 parents and 11

children aged from 5 to 12. It was the first time in

France. We were 3 organizers, 2 for children and one for

parents because the activities were often separated. We

had time together also: each family made an artwork

with papers and drawings to decorate their meditation

corner. We meditated once together. Children were very

happy and said they would like to go on.”

“The capacity for wonder and a love of wisdom return

with contemplative practice” (Laurence Freeman, The

Goal of Life, pg. 64).

We are brought to wonder when we are faced with

something which is beyond our capacity to

comprehend, something which is a mystery and which

leaves us speechless. We are in fact, whether we know

it or not, brought up short before the mystery whom we

call God. Our contribution as adults is one of enabling

the child or children in our care to be free and fearless,

so that unexpectedly, rapturously, in some unforeseen

moment of contact, they may be caught up in this

mystery of God” Madeleine Simon Born Contemplative

p.36­37 ◊

"Wonder is prayer in

embryo."

Madeleine Simon, Born Contemplative

Christian Meditation With Chi ldren And Young People - Page 3

Meditation inSchoolsby Penny Sturrock

The February 2014 Instru­

mentum Laboris titled “Edu­

cating Today and Tomorrow: A

Renewing Passion” stated: “The

young people we are educating

today will become the leaders of the

2050s. What will religion’s

contribution be to educating

younger generations to peace,

development, fraternity in the

universal human community? How

are we going to educate them to

faith and in faith? How will we

establish the preliminary conditions

to accept this gift, to educate them

to gratitude, to a sense of awe, to

asking themselves questions, to

develop a sense of justice and

consistency? How will we educate

them to prayer?”1

In an online article about

meditation in schools, Rosalind

Stockley said, “Meditatio, the

outreach arm of WCCM, adopted

the practical principles (of the

Townsville methodology – teaching

the teachers) and developed a

programme for introducing

meditation to primary school

children in the UK and other

countries. This programme

involves, as a general rule,

introducing meditation to all the

school staff at one time, to enable

them to take it to the children

themselves, at a time in the school

day where it is most appropriate. As

a consequence, it is a whole school

activity, although year groups will

meditate for different time periods.

The rule of thumb is that each child

will eventually meditate for one

minute per year of age, even though

the start point can be as little as one

minute in total. The most common

time to pray in this way is after the

lunch break, when children return

to a classroom.... Sometimes the

children who benefit the most are

the children with special needs.”2

Marilyn Jones would agree. In an

interview with her3, the very

experienced Primary classroom

teacher from Sydney, Australia who

has been meditating with her

classes for the last 9 years said,

“Christian meditation helps

develop a beautiful relationship

between teacher and children, and

between the children themselves.

They become more aware of God's

wonder in the world around us.

Meditation empowers them in a

complex world. We want children to

be fully alive. We need to bring

them from their minds into their

hearts. Meditation is very gentle. It

provides a ‘level praying field’ for

the classroom and the many and

varied abilities and needs of the

children. It offers a unique

invitation to each child to do what

they are most hungry and able to do

— to enter into the profound silence

and stillness within themselves —

in a way where no one is more or

less able, more or less verbal or

adept with the ‘correct’ answer or

response. This way of prayer has no

“Any teacher or parent knows the

extraordinary direct holiness and goodness in a

child. To teach, to raise children is a spiritual

experience. However we may understand it,

whatever kind of system we may be using,

however we may professionalise it, the teaching

or the raising of a child is a spiritual

experience. It’s a value of universal currency, it

transcends all cultures. And that is why

teaching and parenthood are vocations of the

highest order.”

Laurence Freeman OSB

Continued on Pg. 4...

Christian Meditation With

Chi ldren and Young People

Meditatio

St Marks

Myddelton Square

London EC1 R 1 XX

United Kingdom

email : meditatio@wccm.org

web: meditatio.co.uk

Meditatio is a cluster of programs, publications and

events that brings the fruits and benefits of meditation to

the wider world. It is the outreach of The World

Community for Christian Meditation and seeks to bring

universal spiritual wisdom and values to bear upon the

pressing issues of a secular world.

Christian Meditation With Children And Young People

is a Meditatio publication.

©2016 The World Community for Christian Mediataion.

Meditation & Education is a guide for those who want to

introduce primary school children to a daily meditation

practice. Visit meditatiostore.com/children to obtain a

copy.

favourites, there is no evaluation, no competition, no

comparison, no judgement and no ‘debriefing.’ The best

advice I heard from one youngster is this: ‘We meditate,

then we do maths.’”

Marilyn reminds us how children ask a peer or adult,

“Can I play?” The child is shown how to play a game.

“This is the same ‘playfulness’ they bring to

meditation,” she says. The child asks, “Can I pray?” The

child is shown how to meditate. “When they learn to

meditate together they are learning something of

immense benefit for their social relationships later in

life. It's for all types of learners — especially the active.”

As Madeleine Simon4 put it, “Children are natural

contemplatives so if we encourage them to be still and

open their hearts to the divine love within, they will

have a gift to last the rest of their lives. Sowing the seed

of meditation in the young child allows God do the

work of God and provides the foundation for paying

attention, which is love.” ◊

References:

1: Instrumentum Laboris, “Educating Today and

Tomorrow: A Renewing Passion” February 2014

2: Rosalind Stockley, rozstockley@copsewood.org.uk.

The full article was first published in http://shoreline­

editions.co.uk/ and segments are shared here with

permission

3: Marilyn Jones (marilyn.jones5@bigpond.com). The

cited interview is available at youtube.com/

watch?v=lcZJkcJtjcE

4: Madeleine Simon, Born Contemplative

Continued from pg 3