A Book of Hours: Meditations with Bede Griffiths

A BOOK OF HOURS: Meditations With Bede Griffiths

The late Dom Bede Griffiths (1906-1993) lived at Saccidananda ashram, which was established as a place of incarnational spirituality. Here the riches of Indian spirituality are brought to Christianity, to share in that profound experience of God which originated in the Vedas, was developed in the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita and has come down to us today through a continual succession of sages and holy teachers.

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Selected poems, especially from among the Tamil Poets, and prayers, sacred texts and other excerpts from inter-spiritual sources from among the world’s traditions have been chosen with an eye to those which Bede Griffiths’ found inspiring during his daily elocutions at the Eucharist, his personal writings, while giving personal spiritual directions, and at other times when he was speaking with the ashram community or throughout the world.

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The overriding key theme arising in this Book of Hours posits that some people have an abiding and resilient sense of self-transcendence. Specifically, the aim of this Book of Hours is to portray the sources, nature and meaning of the experience of spiritualty in everyday life, a phenomenon which the author, Meath Conlan suggests comprises five elements as follows:

- THE SEARCH FOR AND WILL TO MEANING IN LIFE:

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- CULTIVATING INNER SPACE:

silence and stillness, sacred reading, and meditation;

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- MANIFESTING THE SPIRIT:

self transcendence showing itself as connectedness, forgiveness, flow, confidence, simplicity and passion, living in the present, endurance, overcoming and surrendering fear and anger, patience, and friendship;

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- RESPONDING TO NATURE AND HUMANITY:

wonder and awe, observing the rhythms of Nature and the Spirit, ineffability, overcoming dualism, self-knowledge;

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- COMMUNITY:

private and public prayer, shared memory and meaning, belonging, solitude and loneliness.

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Note: This book will be available generally in 2010