The Goal of Life

Fr Laurence was born in England in 1951 where he was educated by the Benedictines and studied English Literature at Oxford University. In the monastery his spiritual teacher was John Main with whom he studied and whom he helped in the establishment of the first Christian Meditation Centre in London. In 1977, he went with John Main at the invitation of the Archbishop of Montreal to establish a Benedictine community of monks and laypeople dedicated to the practice and teaching of Christian meditation. Fr Laurence studied theology at the Universite de Montreal and at McGill University, made his solemn monastic profession in 1979 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1980. After the death of John Main in 1982, he continued the work of teaching meditation that had now begun to develop a global community. In 1991, Fr Laurence returned to England to establish the International Centre of the newly formed World Community for Christian Meditation that is now present in more than a hundred countries. He is the Director of the WCCM Benedictine Oblate Community. In 2010 he launched the MEDITATIO outreach programme of the Community to mark the celebration of its twentieth anniversary. Laurence Freeman is the author of many books and articles including Christian Meditation; The Selfless Self; Web of Silence; Common Ground; A Short Span of Days; Your Daily Practice; and Jesus: The Teacher Within.

Laurence Freeman shares insights into understanding Jesus in order to better understand ourselves. He teaches that the goal of life is to know fully who we are, and that self-transcendence is the way to self-knowledge. In this state, the centre of consciousness no longer resides in the ego. Individual identity is not lost but it is transcended. The practice of meditation harmonizes and integrates in the spirit all that we think and feel and say and do. Meditation, the simplifying practice of silence and stillness, inaugurates a whole new way of being. It is a way of life. Freeman provides a guide into a Christian way of meditation, simple and capable of being practiced by all, that is found in the teachings of the first Christian monks. Readers of The Goal of Life will learn how this dramatic rediscovery of Christian meditation has deepened the way many can understand their Christian identity.