Why do we encourage meditation together?
This content was first published in the Questions and Answers by Father Peter Murphy section in Stillpoint Magazine, March 2026. The blogpost version contains some adaptions, such as inclusion of the Opening and Closing prayers.
Q. Why do we encourage meditating together?
To begin with we are social beings, and this applies to our spiritual life as with anything else. However, we are moving into a dystopian society in which people are becoming increasingly isolated. Although we are more connected than ever through social media, the level of connection is becoming increasingly shallow. Loneliness is a global epidemic.
There is a psychological chemistry created by being in the presence of others, and to meditate with others is very intimate. You come to love your fellow meditators as they are, without verbal interaction.
The Spirit within us is mingling with the Spirit within everyone else. That forms aconnection and an awareness which reveals to us the real presence of Christ, exemplifyingthe Body of Christ.
As humans we need to experience embodied presence to feel human but we also need solitude. Loneliness is when you feel disconnected and this is increased by our dependence upon media. There is no substitute for a real conversation. Solitude is when we discover our uniqueness by suspending the ego. We discover in meditation that God does not have favourites.
In community we discover that we are uniquely loved and equally loved. Here we discover peace and we don’t have to compete. In meditating together we heal that tendency within us to become isolated.
There is a paradox here. When meditating alone you know you belong to a community, and when meditating in a group you can be in solitude. Contemplative communities have to show that the cure for loneliness is solitude. It seems counterintuitive. The Gospels describe how Jesus frequently spent time in solitude. We can feel lonely in a crowded work environment.
Is a pill the cure for this? People gravitate together for different reasons, for instance a gang is a group of isolated individuals who are bound together by loneliness and anger. One of the fruits of COVID was that the Community developed its online programme. Online meditation groups also became the order of the day, however since COVID many groups have remained online or developed a hybrid system by meeting in person once a month and online weekly. There is a big difference between meeting online and spending time traveling across town on a winter’s night to a meditation group.
The reality is there is no real substitute for being physically present to one another. There are exceptions of course and the online groups provide a service for those incapacitated or separated by distance.
The meditation ends with the closing prayer by Laurence Freeman OSB.
"May this group be a true spiritual home for the seeker, a friend for the lonely, a guide for the confused. May those who pray here be strengthened by the Holy Spirit to serve all who come, and to receive them as Christ Himself. In the silence of this room may all the suffering, violence, and confusion of the world encounter the Power that will console, renew and uplift the human spirit. May all who come here weighed down by the problems of humanity leave giving thanks for the wonder of human life. We make this prayer through Christ our Lord. AMEN."
