In 1998, a small office in the center of Phoenix, became the Cornerstone Center - a name significant for its scriptural reference in 1Peter 2:7: Christ as the Cornerstone and the invitation to come to Him and as "living stones . . . built into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood. . ." The spiritual house, a community, retains the basic thrust of a motivated group of lay persons, claiming no particular privilege other than as Christians searching for a deeper path of fulfillment.
We moved to the former convent at St. Agnes parish in 2002 for four years. We held overnight retreats, days of renewal and silence, and continued the work of meditation. Now we are located in a pleasant and commodious office building with eight adjoining rooms. However, the experience of accessible overnight accommodations, as at St. Agnes, proved to us the value of lived in retreats for individuals and groups.
To answer the question, why are we meditating? most of us would say because meditation is the most human, practical, response we can make to the Indwelling Spirit. Our experience brings us to see it as an imperative and fulfilling need in the midst of busy lives and the usual struggles with stress and the demands of modern living. It is the experience of meditation rather than the teaching of meditation which is primary.
We have also come to realize that meditation, contemplative prayer for today has a counterpart in the whole of life - as a way into the political, the social as well as the personal. Authentic mysticism does not preclude action for justice or prophesy for social transformation. In fact, the deepening of conscience in prayer and intimacy with God opens doors to heartfelt involvement in the lives and needs of others. Otherwise, the community we speak of exists only for itself which is contrary to God's all-embracing love. Christian contemplatives around the world work for the homeless, the abused, the sick, the poor. Teaching children to meditate, reaching out to the Spanish immigrant, visiting prisons are ways that give voice to and living proof of the vitality of persons who have sensitized their conscience in silent prayer. Mysticism and prophecy maintain and promise the balance of Christianity. "Without contemplative depth, it is extremely difficult to sustain ongoing resistance, which so often entails suffering at the hands of the very community the prophet serves." (Mysticism and Social Transformation, Janet Ruffing, "Introduction", editor, 2001) As one of our teachers has said, anything less rewrites the Gospel!
One of Father John's remarkable insights is the community which evolves and which is birthed by those persons coming together regularly for meditation. In Christ and in our silent meditation together we become brothers and sisters in a new relationship. This gives us great hope for ecumenical unity. Meditation does not replace other forms of prayer but rather enhances and deepens all prayer. Eucharist, liturgy, scripture, rosary are fed with new fervor and a new listening heart. Why? Persons will tell you that the experience of simple, daily meditation reveals the experience of "being known and loved and being held in the infinite embrace of God".