Our first big event of the year, our Meet-Up for groups in the Dublin area and surrounding counties, will take place on Saturday 23 March 2024 in Balally Parish Centre, D16 E032. We appeal to all meditators in these areas to ensure they have one or two members of their group in attendance on the day. Those who are not members of a group but who meditate or would like to know more about meditation are also invited to come along. If you have ever considered starting a group in your area, we can help you do just that.
Noel Keating will give a talk entitled ‘Sensing What We Already Are‘ which will lead to a dialogue and discussion on the theme. This will be followed by a 20 minute meditation after which there will be an open forum where you can raise any questions you may have. We will also explore how we can best animate our Irish community.
Tea and coffee will be available from 10 a.m. and the meeting will start at 10:30 a.m. and conclude by 12:30 p.m. See you there! Click here for directions to Balally.
Fr Jim Caffrey, P.P. of Balally, has arranged an innovative and contemplative Holy Week Retreat in Balally (Eircode: D16 E032) based on poetry as shown above. The retreat will take place over the first three days of Holy Week,, beginning on Monday, 25 March at 8 p.m. with an audience with the poet Aidan Matthews whose latest book of poetry is paradoxically called ‘Pure Filth‘. On Tuesday evening, Sr Una Agnew will speak to the poetry of Patrick Kavanagh – Una is author of the wonderful book ‘The Mystical Imagination of Patrick Kavanagh: A Buttonhole in Heaven?’ An on Wednesday evening we will have an audience with the poet John F. Deane. John was the founder of Poetry Ireland, whose 2014 Poetry Ireland Review, edited by John, addressed the question ‘Who Do You Say that I Am?’ In 2020 his book ‘The Outlaw Christ’ , based on a series of talks and lectures at Loyola University, Chicago explores how poets from the 8th Century to the present day bring Christ to life in their work. These talks are a unique opportunity, not to be missed.
The Teacher by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
In the garden of wisdom,
she did not step in as head gardener.
Instead, she tended her own planting.
She showed me how to weed
the stories we tell ourselves,
how inner spaciousness
is the richest soil for growth.
She did not do the tilling for me.
Inquiry became my hoe.
She offered questions free
as rain water.
And when it was time to sow,
from her own rows she gathered seeds.
She did not do the planting.
She handed the seeds to me.
Reflection by Noel Keating:
Rosemerry Trommer wrote this poem in honour of her contemplative teacher, Joi Sharp, from whom she had learned so much about living contemplatively. This poem speaks to the essence of teaching as a vocation. As Parker J Palmer expresses it ‘Our deepest calling is to grow into our own authentic self-hood, whether or not it conforms to some image of who we ought to be. As we do so, we will find not only the joy that every human being seeks – we will also find our path of authentic service in the world.’
Teaching is not about filling children’s heads with knowledge, but about helping them to discover who they are in the depths of their being. We introduce them to the culture into which they have been born and we teach them skills to interrogate it and see beyond it. This involves looking inwards as well as outwards. The best teachers help children to access their inner spaciousness and develop true-self esteem.
The greatest gift a parent or teacher can give a child is the capacity to question and to have confidence in their own inner wisdom. Meditation, the practice of sitting still in body and mind, is such a teacher. It helps adults and children alike to ‘weed the stories we tell ourselves’ and to discover that our ‘inner spaciousness is the richest soil for growth.’
The poem has particular relevance, I think, for those who teach about meditation – at any level, whether giving talks online or simply leading a weekly meditation group. The opening lines of the poem clarifies that the teacher’s role is to teach by example, to tend to her own journey, to her own planting, to how she is called to be. The quote attributed to St Francis – ‘Preach the Gospel at all times and, if necessary, use words’ comes to mind. Each person has to do their own work, their own tilling.
By tending to their own weeds, teachers may draw others to attend to their own. By being faithful to their daily practice of meditation, teachers can demonstrate that meditation awakens us to the spaciousness within which is the richest soil for growth. And engaging with questions, helping to open them up and tease them out rather than ‘answer’ them, is like handing the questioner seeds which they can plant in the soil of their own spaciousness, having faith that the harvest will follow in due course.
Regional Coordinators
This will be an online event via Zoom on Saturday, 13 April 2024 from 11 am to 12:45. Niall Kennedy, who recently became an oblate of WCCM, , will speak about his contemplative journey.
This will be followed by an opportunity for regional coordinators to share about their experience of animating groups in their region.
Annual Forum & AGM
Our Annual Forum and AGM will take place on Saturday, 11 May 2024 in Balally from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Bring a packed lunch – tea and coffee will be provided. We hope that representative from all of our regions will attend in person. Jane Mellett will give a talk on meditation and ecology. Your attendance will help make this a lively and rewarding event where we can reanimate and renew our community.
Regular Contemplative Events at Balally
The following Contemplative Events take place each week at Balally Parish:
Morning Prayer (Icon Chapel) : Mon, Wed, Fri at 9:15;
Tue, Thurs, Sat 10 a.m.
Evening Prayer (Icon Chapel): Mon, Wed, Thurs 7 p.m.
Desert Day Contemplative Mass (Lane Room): Tuesday, 7 p.m.
Stations of the Cross Friday at 10 a.m. Mass
Book for Lent: Divine Beauty, John O’Donohue
Directions to Balally
For directions to Balally by car or Luas, click here.
There will also be a wonderful event in Balally on Saturday 28 September and Sunday 29 September 2024 that you will not wish to miss! Trust me on this! Further details will follow in later Newsletters, but put those dates in your diary NOW!
