Working with a teacher will help you actively engage with the practice.
Teachers in the spiritual life “act as antidotes to our confusions and selfishness and pain when we are least able to make clear decisions. They act as corrections when we of all people would be least satisfied with ourselves. They become the compasses when we are veering off course, not because we do not want to see but because our sight is blinded now by age or stress or fatigue. They become the track when our hearts stray or our lives hurt.“
Chittister, J. (2017). Rule of Benedict: A Spirituality for the 21st Century
Michelle Wood
Michelle began meditating in 1999. She is a Narrative Therapist with thirty years of experience counselling individuals and families. A registered Professional Supervisor with the Australian Counselling Association she provides supervision and consultation to professionals in the counselling, health, legal, religious, government, business, community, and education sectors.
Michelle completed postgraduate studies in Zen Buddhism and creative writing. In 2017, she was awarded a PhD from the University of Kent, Canterbury. Her doctorate explored how to narrate the transformative effects of silent meditation, walking in nature, and reading literature.
She obtained her theological qualifications from Trinity College, Melbourne. In 2018, she was awarded The Catherine Laufer Award for Excellence in Systematic Theology.
“I began to meditate twenty-five years ago when I joined a Christian meditation group. Each week when the group met, we listened to a talk by John Main OSB, meditated for twenty minutes in silence, and then finished with a prayer or a poem.
Through this regular practice in a group a door was opened for me, and the ‘ear of my heart’ began to listen more, more to people in my work, and more attentively to my then small children. I became aware of the presence of God in every aspect of life which has brought me a sense of creativity and compassion.
I developed a regular practice of twenty minutes silent meditation at home each morning and evening. I have kept it faithfully over all this time whether in Istanbul or on the banks of the Murray River. I do it each day before morning and evening prayer. Meditation helps me listen and enter the depth of this prayer cycle.
I have been to monasteries all over the world but mostly I have found that your own daily dedicated faithful practice is your best teacher.”
Michelle is available for consultation and guidance by appointment, in person, or online. http://www.mwoodcounsellingsupervision.com
Paul Wood
Paul was ordained an Anglican Priest in 1988 and has served as priest in charge in several parishes in Australia and the United Kingdom. He has also worked as a counsellor for eight years in a community health setting. He is a keen student of C.G Jung.
“Wherever I have been I have always sought out places of solitude to walk, think and pray. It is in these places that I discovered the expansion of mind and the expansion of heart that not only regenerated me, but also enabled me to give the best of myself to the communities where I belonged.
I discovered this gift as a young child of seven years at boarding school where I needed to break away from what I experienced as an oppressive structure, and then during the holidays in the mountains I discovered the exhilaration of expanding my heart and my mind. I have carried these habits ever since always seeking freedom and transcendence in places of solitude for prayer.
True solitude is not about escape from the world rather it is about raw encounter. The encounter of the depths of oneself as one really is, before the truth of God as God really is.
For those who are on this wilderness journey Paul is happy to offer conversations to help you work through the many layers that you encounter. Paul may be contacted via this website at quietcommunion@gmail.com
This is the transformative power of the wilderness.
Quiet Communion 