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BRAZIL
FROM THE HEART
    MEDITATION CREATES COMMUNITY
    SOUTH AMERICAN STYLE
    I joined the Brazilian Christian Meditation Community in 1996 and began to
    coordinate the annual visits of Fr Laurence throughout Brazil in 2001. I
    became the National Coordinator in 2002 and joined the Guiding Board of
    the World Community in 2003. For the past two years I have been helping
    to develop the Christian Meditation Community in other countries of South
    America where groups are now forming, including Argentina, Chile,
    Paraguay and Venezuela.

    After ten years of meditating and five of coordinating Fr Laurence’s visits
    to Brazil I have begun to learn from experience the meaning of these
    words of John Main –‘meditation creates community’. I never cease to
    wonder how so many different kinds of people – with big cultural, national,
    social and age differences – can feel part of the same community simply
    by praying (and working) together without most of the links formed by
    strong structures, rules or organisation.

    After following the growth of the Brazilian community – which has now
    more than fifty weekly groups – and then seeing the first groups form in
    Argentina, Chile and Paraguay, I have come to believe in the truth of Fr
    John’s words. I have come to feel the power of the spirit acting in the
    silence of prayer and uniting people in a community of love.

    I have just come back from Argentina, Paraguay and Chile where I have
    seen the familiar signs of a new life of this community. From experience I
    know there will be crises ahead in the growth process. But I also am sure
    that through the power of silence we can transcend them because
    meditation opens the heart directly to love and to the presence of Christ.
    The need to share this experience within – and beyond – the community is
    inescapable. It is love that generates community while the ‘devil’ is the
    force that divides. After these years of experience I feel that I am part of a
    spiritual community in all these countries. There is always another step in
    community: I was talking with Antonio Sosa from Venezuela who came to
    the retreat in Argentina and will now begin a group there. As we spoke of
    the experience of community he remarked that his mother had always
    reminded him that he was named after St Anthony of the Desert. The
    community we belong to extends far back historically as well as
    geographically.



    Ana Fonseca
    Brazil
    December 2006