LEARN TO LIVE IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD

THE WORLD COMMUNITY
FOR CHRISTIAN MEDITATION
FRIENDS IN MEDITATION
MEXICO
FROM THE HEART
    VISIT FROM FATHER LAURENCE TO MEXICO
    15-18 FEBRUARY 2008

    There was nothing as spectacular as the sun rise and the sunset in Cuernavaca, Mexico
    where 41 people gathered in a Benedictine Monastery to spend a week-end sharing
    meditation.  We learned that like the repetition cycles of nature, we can also tune up our
    spiritual life when we enter into the daily discipline of meditation and repeat our mantra.  

    It was wonderful to see Father Laurence again, meet new friends from Argentina, Poland and
    United States.  And it was also great to share these events with meditators that we met before
    in Ixtapa or in Mexico City, as well as new meditators from different areas of Mexico like
    Mexico City, Morelos, State of Mexico, Veracruz, and Zacatecas, who are now part of this
    blossoming community of friends in meditation.

    Father Laurence explained to us the work of the power of silence; how it is the liberating force
    that integrates us and unites us with others and with God.  For some participants, being in
    silence was a daring step in their spiritual life – we are not trained to be quiet, or to share a
    meal in silence.  

    It did not take long for the participants to learn to enjoy the silence.  This was reflected in the
    smiles that we shared with each other as we met along the gardens.  There is nothing as
    powerful as a smile.  And also we enjoyed the level of attention that we gave each other as a
    result of experiencing the attention of repeating our sacred word.  We could then understand
    that Love is attention, to be attentive to Him who dwells in us and in the other.

    Loving God, loving the other can only be understood and accomplished when we learn to love
    ourselves. And for that we must lose the fear of silence, the fear of solitude, the fear of deeply
    ex-pressing ourselves to the other.  It is in the cracks of our awareness of distraction, that
    Grace happens and it is also in the process of building up attention that Love happens.  

    The extraordinary creative force of Eros can be channeled through prayer to fully integrate us,
    humanly, into our Creator.  So the Agape state is a conscious journey of discipline, silence,
    attention, quietness and appreciation of the Gift within us and in the friendship with each other.

    The Gift was very visible and tangible – in Father Laurence, in the participants, and in all those
    who helped us organize these events.  We keep in our hearts, specially during the
    Contemplative Mass on Saturday, the international Community of Friends who joined us in
    spirit, silence, prayer and communion – GRACIAS.  

    Special thanks to Fray Ricardo Villarreal Acosta, the Shangrila Meditation Centre and the
    Centro Universitario Cultural de la Orden de Predicadores as well as the  Colegio Regina in
    Mexico City for helping us organize two conferences where approximately  50 and 75 people,
    respectively, attended.

    We recognize the Grace of God for giving us again the great privilege to be together, to be in
    the work-in-progress of friendship and to permit us to be part of the realization of one of His
    divine plans.


    Lucía Gayón
    Coordinator - Mexico