Our annual day of contemplation will take place on Saturday, 23 September 2023 with Father Donagh O’Shea. The theme for the day will be Rediscovering a Contemplative Church.
We have changed the format of the day so it will begin at 10 a.m. and conclude at 1:30 p.m. with no lunch provided. There will be refreshment break from 11:30 to 12 noon with tea, coffee and biscuits provided for all.
Rather than charge a set fee for the event we are asking for a voluntary donation of as much as you can afford, with a recommended donation of €20 which will go towards our running costs of events and activities throughout the year.
To help us ensure we have sufficient accommodation and refreshments in place on the day, we ask, please, that you book your place through Eventbrite by clicking on the image to the right. We expect a large turnout for this first event of the 2023-24 season so please book sooner than later. One can attend and donate on the day without booking but booking really helps us to plan for the event. So, why not book right now?
Our next Dublin & Environs Meet-Up will take place on Saturday, 21 October 2023 in Balally Parish Centre (10:30 am-12:30 pm).
Our guest speaker will be Dr Noel Keating – he will speak about how we can use metaphor and poetry to explore the practice and deep fruits of meditation. Heidegger once wrote that ‘Poetry is language in service of the unsayable‘. Isn’t that a beautiful metaphor in itself? ‘Language in service of the unsayable. Poetry can point us towards a truth that resonates with our heart but which can never be adequately described in words. Noel uses contemplative poetry in his online meditation sessions every Thurs and Sunday evening and always offers us a contemplative reflection in our monthly Newsletter.
If we are to grow as a contemplative community in Christian Meditation Ireland we need to avail of regular opportunities to meet likeminded people and share about our experience of the benefits and fruits of meditation. So, please do come along and bring a friend.
Click on the image to the left to book your place for free – but we do ask you to book so we can ensure we have sufficient seating and refreshments for all.
In-person with Fr Laurence Freeman
Don’t miss this in-person event with Fr Laurence Freeman OSB on 02 December 2023 in Balally. This is a unique opportunity to meet with Fr Laurence and hear him talk about the practice and deep fruits of meditation practice.
Fr Laurence is making a weekend visit to the contemplative parish of Balally. He will celebrate a contemplative Mass in Bally Parish Centre on Friday evening, 01 December and will open the John Main Room in the centre immediately afterwards.
He will give two talks on Saturday morning, each followed by Q&A and time for meditation with a coffee break in between. The event will start at 10 a.m. and finish at 13:30. We ask that all Christian Meditation Ireland events be booked through Eventbrite as that helps us to ensure that we have sufficient seating and refreshments in place. To book your place – for which we seek a donation -click on the image to the right.
Other Contemplative Events at Balally Parish Centre, D16 E032
Carl McColman (on the left) will give two talks on Celtic Spirituality and Contemplation on Mon 18 and Tues 19 September from 7:30 – 8:30 p.m. in Balally Parish Centre, D16 E032
In honour of the 55th anniversary of the death of Thomas Merton, the renowned theologian Fr Michael Downey (on the right) will give three talks on the legacy of Thomas Merton on Mon, 11, Tues 12 and Wed 13 December 2023 from 7 – 8 p.m. each evening. No need to book for either event but donations will be greatly appreciated.
Following our appeal for volunteers to assist our work, Joe Brophy from Tullamore has joined our Board and will take on the role of company secretary to manage our communications with the Companies Registration Office and the Charities Regulator. Many thanks Joe!
We are looking for one final volunteer to help us maintain our website. Can you help?
Or perhaps you know someone who may be able to deveote a few hours a month and who has some experience Microsoft Word or similar editing skills.
We offer our sincere thanks to Eithne White who recently retired from the Board of Christian Meditation Ireland after many years of dedicated service. Eithne always gave selflessly of her time and energies over that time. For several years she single-handedly looked after all the arrangements for our annual retreats – accepting bookings by post, email and phone, managing all receipts and payments, ‘manning’ the arrivals desk on the day of the event, booking the venue and liasising with the management of the venue and with the guest speakers in all matters relating to the event. In addition, Eithne made her home available for meetings of the Board in her warm, inviting sitting room and always provided a cuppa and a range of refreshments afterwards. Thanks a million, Eithne. We wish you every blessing!
John Main Seminar Online 2023
The John Main Seminar 2023 starts on Thursday, 14 September and concludes with a contemplative Mass on Sunday, 17 September. Places are still available online. You can book your place by clicking on the image to the left and scrolling down the page.
Speakers include Laurence Freeman, Andrew Harvey and Cynthia Bourgeault. There will be a pre-seminar retreat from Sept 11-14.
Inside It All
by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Beneath the masks, beneath the names,
beneath ideals, beneath the shoulds
is a thrumming, ecstatic atomic swirl,
unseen and omnipresent, inescapable
and holy—a divine blurring of being,
a realm of charge and energy—
most of it empty space.
Sometimes,
I remember this. Perhaps walking
in the woods or standing in the midst
of a city’s whir, perhaps working in the kitchen
or singing in a choir, I remember
who we really are, remember
not with mind but with being,
and I’m lost in it, found in it,
alive in the cloud of it, astonished
with the sacred design of it,
elegant soup of it,
elemental swirl of it all.
How is it I sometimes
see only woman, man,
cottonwood, spider, self, other,
other, other, other?
We walk this journey
of separation together.
Oh being who is lonely,
remember?
Noel Keating reflects:
In Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, Thomas Merton writes about a deeply significant moment in his life as a monk: ‘In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the centre of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world. . . .
This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud. . . . I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now that I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.
Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed. . . . But this cannot be seen, only believed and ‘understood’ by a peculiar gift.’
The poet address the same theme in her own experience of the thrumming, ecstatic atomic swirl, unseen and omnipresent, inescapable and holy – a realm of charge and energy – that underpins all of life. And she says that ‘Sometimes, I remember this … I remember who we really are, remember not with mind but with being, and I’m lost in it, found in it. Does this not describe very well our experience of meditation – or at least the trace it leaves behind: this knowledge of the heart regarding who we truly are in the depths of our being. Even when the fragrance fades, that essential heart-knowing remains.
May our meditation help us to break the illusion of seeing only woman, man, cottonwood, spider, self, other, other, other, other! May it remind us that we walk this journey of imagined separation together. And may that knowing inform how we live out our lives.
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