Welcome to our September 2022 Newsletter and to our brand new website. All of our newsletters will be available from our website from now on and we will continue to use MailChimp to let you know when a new Newsletter has been published.
On Tuesday, 13 September 2022 we held our first in-person meditation event since the beginning of the pandemic. And what a wonderful evening we had in Balally parish Church.
Fr Laurence began by reminding us that we live in a time of crisis for humanity as evidenced by the climate crisis that we are having such difficulty facing up to and the ongoing displacement of peoples as a consequence of climate change and war. Meditation, he stressed, is a necessary response and he was heartened to be invited to be with us to explore the necessity for and the fruits of a contemplative response.
Click on the image to view a recording of Fr Laurence’s talk.
See below for a summary fo Fr. Laurence’s talk
The Board of CMI considers the time has come to begin a post-pandemic renewal of all the activities which help to animate our community. To that end we invited Fr Laurence Freeman to speak to us at our first in-person gathering since the start of the pandemic. It was wonderful to be together in such numbers when that came to pass on Tuesday evening, 13th September 2022 in Balally Parish Church in Dublin 16.
We invited Balally to host our event because that parish, under the guidance of Fr Jim Caffrey and Fr Dermot Lane, has expressed a desire and a determination to become a contemplative parish; they see their mission as one of building hope through meditation and service which dovetails beautifully with the mission of Christian Meditation Ireland.
Christian Meditation Ireland and Balally Parish plan to collaborate together over the coming years. The parish intends that it will be a centre for Christian meditation in Dublin which will have strong links with Christian Meditation Ireland and the World Community for Christian Meditation. Is that not a wonderful vision and a very hopeful sign? And wouldn’t it be great if centres of meditation in the Christian tradition could be developed, over time, in other cities in Ireland and all across the world?
CMI is grateful to Fr Jim, Fr Dermot and Fr Laurence – and all in Balally parish, represented so ably by Martina Kavanagh and David Healy – for such an expansive vision and a wonderful evening. We look forward to working together as we strive to promote a contemplative way of being in the world, where the fruits of our meditation are made manifest in contemplative service in our communities. We hope to offer programs – developed by the WCCM School of Meditation for teaching meditation and for deepening one’s practice – through Balally Meditation Centre for the enrichment of all who may feel called to a contemplative way of life.
Fr Jim Caffrey writes: It was a very special moment in the life of our parish, Balally in South Dublin when we welcomed Fr Laurence in early September. The parish is 40 years old and was led for 25 years by an inspiring pastor, the distinguished theologian Fr Dermot Lane. Having served in several Dublin parishes and acting as Youth Director of the diocese for 16 years, felt called to explore monastic life and spent 5 great years as a Trappist/ Cistercian monk in Mepkin Abbey , South Carolina. On my return to Dublin I was appointed as Parish Priest of Balally in September 2021. I sensed that the parish was open to renewal and with the support of Fr Dermot I began introducing the people to meditation. Noel Keating assisted in getting the children in the schools meditating. I believe we are on the cusp of something wonderful, with Gods help .
We are adapting a Mission Statement of Building Hope through Meditation and Service. A new Pastoral Council, led by Martina Kavanagh (Chair) and David Healy (Vice Chair) will promote the vision. It’s a vision of a monastery without walls, a non-geographical contemplative parish, a place not having a meditation group but a parish which meditates. Fr Laurence shares our vision of Balally as a centre for Christian Meditation in Ireland. With a renewed Parish Pastoral Centre which can be a sanctuary for meditation and service we will begin with Gods help. Maranatha!
Desert Days in Balally
Balally Parish will facilitate contemplative Desert Days every Tuesday, starting on Tuesday, 4 October, in Balally and people from all walks of life, from anywhere, who seek to live a more contemplative lifestyle are invited to participate. The day will begin at 10 a.m. with Exposition, Rosary, Morning Prayer and Meditation in the church. A light silent lunch will be available at 12 noon and participants are invited to do some contemplative reading or walking in the afternoon. The day will conclude with a Contemplative Eucharist in the Lane Room (Parish Centre) at 7:30 p.m. It will include Gospel sharing (Lectio Divina), Taize music and meditation. Modelled on the Contemplative Mass in Bonnveaux, it will last about 65 min.
You are welcome on any Tuesday that you are free. For the first six Tuesdays, in the course of the Mass, Fr Jim and Caroline Stratton will teach how to meditate in the Christian tradition which sees meditation as a silent, imageless, wordless form of prayer.
As part of the collaboration between Christian Meditation Ireland (CMI) and Balally Parish, it is intended over the coming years to hold as many of our events as possible in Balally Parish Centre. The Board of CMI will hold its next meeting in the Parish Centre on Thurs 6 October at 2:30 p.m. We will hold a meeting of Regional Coordinators there in late October and a Dublin & Environs Meet-Up in November – both on Saturday mornings with dates to be agreed and announced soon.
Fr Laurence Freeman met with the Board of CMI as part of his visit. He congratulated the Board on their work to continue animating the Irish meditation community during the pandemic by offering online meditation opportunities.
He recommended, and the Board agreed, that while online meditation groups would continue to be an important resource, there was a great deal to be gained by returning to our in-person meditation groups and we encourage all groups to do so as soon as they feel it is safe to do so.
We are beginning a process of checking in with each of our weekly meditation groups to ensure that the information about each group on our website here is accurate. If you are lister as the leader (or co-leader) of a weekly group, you may receive a call from Stella Gannon, Maria Gavin, Mannix Lynch or your Regional Coordinator over the coming weeks.
If you have led or attended a group which no longer meets each week, it will assist us greatly if you will contact Stella Gannon to let her know and we will update our records.
Our online groups meet every Thursday and Sunday evening at 7:30 p.m. (the online Zoom opens with music at 7:10). Click here to find the links on our homepage. If you would like to receive a reminder each Thurs and Sun at 7:10, email mnkeating@gmail.com
Summary of Fr Laurence’s Talk
Fr Laurence began by reminding us that we live in a time of crisis for humanity as evidenced by the climate crisis that we are having such difficulty facing up to and the ongoing displacement of peoples as a consequence of climate change and war. Meditation, he stressed, is a necessary response and he was heartened to be invited to be with us to explore the necessity for a contemplative response.We need to be aware of course that meditation is not an instant solution to any problem but a journey towards a new way of seeing, towards a deeper consciousness. In Chinese script the symbol for crisis can point to both a danger and an opportunity. Meditation opens the door to opportunity.
The first thing meditation teaches us is how distracted and preoccupied we are all of the time. We live in an ever-busy, hyper-distracted society and that distraction was evident in the children in the two primary schools Fr Laurence had visited in the parish over the last two days. But paying attention to the children was an antidote which helped them settle down. The same is true for adults. Attention is an expression of love and love is always transformative and consciousness-changing; when we feel valued that changes how we see things. Distraction leads to disconnection and this is a major ill in society today. Meditation, which is about paying attention, can help to remedy this. Not merely in a superficial sense of reducing stress and anxiety but at a deeper level of consciousness it changes our way of being in the world.
The Christian tradition of meditation says these deeper fruits arise because meditation is ultimately a form of prayer. Meditation is the art of prayer, going back thousands of years; it has always been seen as the art of arts in the wisdom and religious traditions of the world. Through it we come to appreciate at the level of the heart that we are loved by God and that God pays attention to us. And not just to us but to all; in this way we come to appreciate that we are all loved equally and uniquely and knowing this enables us to pay attention to others. When you sense yourself as receiving attention you can more easily offer attention to others.
Fr Laurence quoted Origen, the early Christian scholar and theologian, on prayer which had the power to change our consciousness for the better, to change how we see reality and, as a result, makes us better persons, more responsive to the needs of those around us. The kind of prayer that does this best is contemplative prayer, the practice of meditation, simply being still and silent in the presence of God, turning all of our attention away from ourselves and toward God. Jesus was a teacher of prayer and every Christian parish should be a school of prayer.
Jesus tells us to be wary of external forms of prayer where we do so in public, perhaps to be seen to do it; and to avoid self-centred prayer, approaching prayer with a view to mere self-satisfaction. Vatican II stressed that the purpose of the liturgy is to develop a contemplative disposition in the people of God. Just as God’s love for each of us is equal and universal, we are all called to pray and to live contemplatively. Jesus said that when you pray, go into your inner room (of the heart, not the mind) and close the door (closing a door means you are intend to stay for a while) and pray to God in that secret place. And don’t go babbling on like the pagans who believe that the more they say the more likely God will hear them. Because your Father knows your needs even before you ask
From Jesus’ teaching on prayer we can identify four steps. 1. Interiority – enter the inner room, opening the heart rather than the mind. 2. Move into silence beyond words. 3. Leave thoughts and distractions, problems and problem-solving to one side and 4. Become present to God who is always present to you. In other words ‘Set your heart on God’s kingdom.’
Meditation makes us keenly aware of the mutual real presence that arises in the stillness and silence. To be mutually present is the essence of all human relationships and of divine-human relationship. The essence of contemplation, of Love, is attention in the present moment.
The earliest Christian monks were lay people and the World Community for Christian Meditation which Fr Laurence leads continues to be a lay movement. It is heartening to see, as the pandemic recedes, that people all over Ireland who attend weekly meditation groups are returning to that weekly practice, offering mutual support to one another. And it is wonderful to see a parish desiring to become a contemplative parish, a parish that sees itself as a centre for meditation.
Fr Laurence then led the group of almost 300 persons into a period of silent meditation, after which he closed with the beautiful prayer from Ephesians 3:14-19.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Harper Bibles. (NRSV Catholic Edition Bible)
We then had a some time for questions to which Fr Laurence responded. One key question related to meditation and other forms of prayer. The Church acknowledges both discursive (mental) and silent (contemplative) prayer. Fr Laurence considered meditation as a very pure form of prayer that draws towards a disposition of willingness to accept what God wants for us. While we sometimes see prayer as asking God to change God’s mind, Julian of Norwich tells us that if we ask God for something and we don’t get it we should persevere and keep on praying for it; but we should also realise that in the process of that prayerful relationship with God, God will change our mind to desire what God wishes and so, in the end, we will get what we ask for! That is the transformative power of contemplative prayer.
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