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:
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
([email protected]) 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 : [email protected]
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, [email protected].
The full article was first published in http://shoreline
editions.co.uk/ and segments are shared here with
permission
3: Marilyn Jones ([email protected]). The
cited interview is available at youtube.com/
watch?v=lcZJkcJtjcE
4: Madeleine Simon, Born Contemplative
Continued from pg 3