by Meath Conlan
Early winter mists floated over the plains and valleys of this beautiful part of South India. Land that was donated by Nehru to the Tibetan refugees after 1959 has become a fertile estate for thousands. From afar the new gompa, a mediation hall as high as a five-storied building, looked imposing and surreal as it towered above everything else for miles around.
by Brian J. Pierce, OP
It has taken several years to break through this impasse. I owe my insights to Fr. Bede Griffiths. I am sure that my Benedictine sisters at the Forest of Peace Ashram in Oklahoma will smile when I say that Fr. Bede would have made a very good Dominican! He had a profound respect and confidence in the world and in history. He loved creation. He loved humanity.
by Shirley du Boulay
Father Bede was often consulted by people seeking spiritual guidance. A young woman still remembers asking his advice, and still remembers what he said: ‘I can only tell you one thing – meditate.’ Father Bede’s life was held firm on the rock of his meditation practice; everything else faded into insignificance by comparison. In meditation he found the still point beyond the world of duality, the reconciliation of opposites for which he longed. The regular practice of meditation was the single thing that most attracted people to Shantivanam;
by Gerald E. Hoke
Standing at the cusp of the new millennium, Fr. Bede Griffiths remains a major beacon on the path to understanding what it is that unites us all in the true cosmic experience, the core of all major world religions. Over and over again he affirms that “The universe can be seen as coming into being as an overflow of the energy, which is love.
by Amber Sturgess
Fr. Bede believed that all Christians are called to contemplative prayer—to pure prayer which leads us into the secret place of the heart to experience God in the spirit. He understood that through contemplative prayer and meditation “there is a Christian mystery that can be experienced in the depth of the soul and answers the deepest need of our human nature.”1 Following in the path of Fr. John Main, Bede taught that we can enter into this Christian mystery by practicing meditation with a mantra.
by Pascaline Coff, OSB
The “return” this year was a pilgrimage of thanksgiving especially from our Benedictine Oblates at Osage+Monastery Forest of Peace and many Friends of the Forest. Many who have shared the fruits of the Oklahoma monastic Ashram wanted to extend their gratitude in a tangible way through our pilgrimage. Fr.Bede himself called Osage+Monastery the Shantivanam of the West and visited it some five times before he died in 1993.
Transcription from Bede Griffiths Homily
Jesus gathers humanity into unity himself and reunites humanity in God and all creation, all humanity returns to God in Christ. That is the goal of the Gospel. It is very important to see this cosmic Christ, and the call of the whole creation is fulfilled in Christ and unless we see that our religion becomes very limited; it would be just a Christian people who are a small group of people in the world, and this is the redemption of humanity and of the whole creation.That is the real meaning of the Gospel.
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