Christian traditions have various practices which can be identified as forms of "meditation." Monastic traditions are the basis for many of these practices. Practices such as the rosary, the Adoration (focusing on the eucharist) in Catholicism or the hesychast tradition in Eastern Orthodoxy, may be compared to forms of Eastern meditation that focus on an individual object. Christian meditation is considered a form of prayer. Meditation is distinguished from contemplation in that the latter involves use of the intellect, focussing on the divine mysteries. Hesychastic practice, involves recitation of the Jesus Prayer, thus "through the grace of God and one's own effort, to concentrate the nous in the heart." Prayer as a form of meditation of the heart is described in the Philokalia—a practice that leads towards Theosis which ignores the senses and results in inner stillness.
In 1975, the Benedictine monk, John Main introduced a form of meditation based on recitation of a prayer-phrase. The World Community for Christian Meditation was founded in 1991 to continue Main's work, which the Community describes as: "teaching Christian meditation as part of the great work of our time of restoring the contemplative dimension of Christian faith in the life of the church."
The Old Testament book of Joshua sets out a form of meditation based on scriptures: "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it, then you will be prosperous and successful" (Joshua 1:8). This is one of the reasons why bible verse memory is a practice among many evangelical Christians
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