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This Body

the sensation of prayer

Julian

My name is Julian Maddock.
In my life I have always and repeatedly come back to a wish to be with God. It is a fundamental driving force in my life. I have not always been good at following this wish but it hasn't let me go and has become the energy that is at the core of my work.

I used to run a small web design business. I am currently focussing on spirituality work.

Get in touch with me or see the contact details at the bottom of the page.

Inspiration

David Abram
@ Alliance for Wild Ethics
James Alison
Ernest Becker
William Bloom
& the Foundation for Holistic Spirituality
Pema Chödrön
Cloud of Unknowing
Focusing [UK]
Thich Nhat Hanh
@ Plum Village
Belden Lane: look here
David Loy: e.g. Avoiding the Void
Eugene Peterson:
The Contemplative Pastor
Antony Gormley
@ Resurgence
The Spiritual Exercises
of Ignatius of Loyola
Rowan Williams:
Archbishop of Canterbury

The Work

“My job is not to solve people's problems or make them happy, but to help them see the grace operating in their lives.” Eugene Peterson p.5

The spiritual journey is the coming home to God at the heart of everything – and at our own “deep heart’s core”. We can realise this in our lives and feel it in our bodies.

I want people to be released into a positive, trusting, life-affirming experience of God and themselves. I work with starting, encouraging and deepening a relationship with God, and in the life and sense of vocation that follows. I am interested in the practicalities of what facilitates this relationship, especially the sense of God felt in the body.

Key elements fire me up and are central to this work:

God: Authentic spirituality starts with being loved and desired by what is massively beyond us, and yet which pervades us. Strictly speaking this is unnameable but I use the name God. God desires and loves us unconditionally. Any religion or spirituality that does not start from this simple premise is fundamentally flawed.
Desire: Perhaps all we have to do is let ourselves be loved, to be the objects of God's desire. Within this gaze I come to know who I am and what I really, really, really want.
Vocation: Everyone, every being, has a purpose that can be found within the love and desire of God for our lives. Finding and clarifying this purpose gives direction and energy to our lives.
Shaping: Spirituality is about how we are shaped by life and how we shape a life out of who we are (identity), what we truly want (desire) and our purpose (vocation). It is choosing daily to live these truths.
This Body: This body is the locus of the divine-human meeting. My contention is that through kindly attention to the sensations of this body we can connect into a process of ever-deepening immersion into the reality of God at our centre and at the centre of life. I use the couplet ‘this body’ to try to indicate that there is not an I that is in or that has a body, but rather that this body is me and is distinct but not separate from God.

I am still learning, and being taught, to realise God and to love.

Diary

Training Day Practical Goodness: good practice from the inside out: London Course for Spiritual Direction; 22 Jun 2012
Day Course This Body: the sensation of prayer: House of Prayer; 30 Jun 2012
ISC Refresher Weekend: London Centre for Spirituality; 7-8 July 2012
8-day Individually Guided Retreat: St Beuno's Ignatian Spirituality Centre; 10-19 Sep 2012
Training Day Sexuality and Spiritual Direction: Gloucestershire Spiritual Direction Course; 29 Sep 2012
Ignatian Spirituality Course: Start of academic year; 2, 3 & 4 Oct 2012

Julian Maddock
18 Ekarro House, 49a Guildford Road, London SW8 2DT
m: 07951 759 953
email me