Published in our August 2019 magazine.

Fifteen years ago a book by John Main started me on the path of contemplative prayer and an exciting new journey in faith. I had already encountered Brother Lawrence and read The Cloud of Unknowing. Later I read Henri Nouwen, Thomas Merton, Margaret Silf and many more, who deepened my appreciation of the riches we have in our Christian tradition.

This is a fascinating book by an author new to me, whose experience echoes my own. I returned to living faith through the ministry of a charismatic church, so I appreciate the early chapters which highlight the strengths of the Evangelical and Charismatic strands Christianity in the UK. He alludes to the need for a growing maturity of faith, where we serve out of a place of rest in God.

Tony outlines a journey that many will recognise and clarifies six great practices for setting out on, maintaining and deepening our relationship with God. He introduces us to spiritual explorers down the centuries, from the 4th century desert fathers and mothers, to those of the present day. He gives the scriptural grounding of their exploration in the practice and experience of Jesus and the early church. The joy too is that, in the final pages, Tony sets out how the reader or small groups of interested people, might explore together those inner disciplines which lead us into new life; a gift indeed.

Sue C.

This is not a book about Christian contemplative prayer, though you will meet some Christian contemplatives in its pages.  Rather, it is a wide-ranging exploration of silence in all sorts of contexts.  In writing it the author travelled widely and interviewed a wide variety of people who value silence.

Each chapter is devoted to one theme e.g. The silence of the mountains, silence in drama, in classical music, in psycho-therapy, transcendental meditation, Zen Buddhism, a Quaker Meeting in Oxford.

The chapter Letting go describes interviews with Fr Richard Rohr and Fr Thomas Keating.  No Words Please tells of the author's stay at Gethsemani, the Trappist monastery which was the home of Thomas Merton for many years, and there is a visit to the present day Desert Fathers in their monastery in the Egyptian desert: ..."the next three days were among the most enriching of my life‟.

There are two moving chapters about people with blood on their hands.  The first, Better than bullets, is the story of an inter-faith group in Lebanon, some of whose members were on opposite sides during the civil war.  The group meets for an hour and a half of shared silence, followed by sharing what has come to them in the silence and ending with improvised prayers.  "A Muslim may begin, then a Christian will continue." The second is about a man doing life for murder in a Scottish jail who is helped by the Prison Phoenix Trust in his journey into meditation and a changed life.

The final chapter describes the author's own first experience of meeting God in silence many years ago.

Gail Ballinger

Bloomsbury Press ISBN 9781441182234 (hardback) 2012 £16.99 ISBN 9781472909190 (paperback)2014 £8.99 e-book (£16.99) from www.bloomsbury.com/uk

Only what is emptied can then be refilled.  When of my own will and choice I am emptied, by handing back my own will, my gifts, my thinking to God, it gives him space which he can re-fill.

It's hard, really hard, to become convinced of this because our general experience of loss is pain.  And we are taught at all costs to avoid pain.

On the cross Jesus deliberately gave back, emptied himself of everything he had.  He lost his control over his own actions, his few possessions, his body, his reputation, his friends, his God, his life.  And that space was refilled by God with the redemption of the whole world.

Just for a few moments each day I take on that degree of powerlessness of which I am capable.  Journeying to that still pool where it is okay to be still; it's okay to be me;  okay to give over control;  okay to contact the child and the clown in me.  It is important to clear the channel for God to flow in the way only he knows.  That means clearing away for a few minutes the very things we prize.  Even our gifts, the very things we have worked at, can be at times rocks in the path of the smooth flow of the living water.

Wanda Nash

An extract from ‘Turning the Downside Up - Growing in Unexpected Places‟ HarperCollins Publishing 1995

Wanda was a much valued contributor to and supporter of The Julian Meetings.  Sadly she died a few years ago and is greatly missed.