Fr Jim Caffrey has been appointed as Interim National Coordinator of Christian Meditation Ireland by Fr Laurence Freeman, Director of the World Community for Christian Meditation. Fr Jim is PP of Balally Parish in South Dublin, near Dundrum. Ordained in 1981 he has worked in several Dublin parishes before spending 5 years as a Cistercian monk in Mepkin Abbey in South Carolina, USA. He returned to Dublin in the Summer of 2021 and was appointed as PP of Balally with a desire to build a contemplative parish. He has been working with an enthusiastic Parish team towards that goal.
Christian Meditation Ireland (CMI) began a collaboration with Balallly Parish, which offered Balally Parish Centre as a centre for Christian Meditation in Ireland and this has remained the venue of choice for CMI events since then. CMI is deeply grateful to Fr Jim and the parish for that collaboration.
Fr Jim joined the Board of CMI in October 2022. As a legal entity, CMI is a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity, which is affiliated with the World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM) through a signed covenant. WCCM is very close to his heart and he has visited their international retreat centre at Bonneveaux, France on many occasions. Fr Jim is happy to have Balally as a Centre for the community in Ireland.
Our first Meet-Up in 2025 will take place on Saturday next, 01 March, in Balally Parish Centre, D16 E032. This is a great opportunity for all meditators – and those interested in hearing more about the practice – to meet with fellow meditators for contemplative nourishment and a chat.
Michael Lane, who has a deep commitment to the practice and promotion of contemplation , will be our speaker. His talk will be followed by a 20 minute meditation after which there will be an opportunity for dialogue.
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.
Our Annual Forum and AGM which was planned to take place on Saturday, 05 April 2024 in Balally (D16 E032) has been postponed. A new date will be advised in due course.
This is our annual opportunity for those interested in meditation across Ireland to get together, to explore how we strive to spread the good news about the benefits and fruits of meditation and engage with others in our community. Your attendance will help make this a lively and rewarding event where we can continue to animate and renew our community. We hope that representatives from all of our regions will attend in person.
Participants will make their own arrangements for lunch after the meeting. If you wish, bring a packed lunch and tea and coffee will be provided after the event.
Of The Empire by Mary Oliver
We will be known as a culture that feared death
and adored power, that tried to vanquish insecurity
for the few and cared little for the penury of the
many. We will be known as a culture that taught
and rewarded the amassing of things, that spoke
little if at all about the quality of life for
people (other people), for dogs, for rivers. All
the world, in our eyes, they will say, was a
commodity. And they will say that this structure
was held together politically, which it was, and
they will say also that our politics was no more
than an apparatus to accommodate the feelings of
the heart, and that the heart, in those days,
was small, and hard, and full of meanness.
from Red Bird, p. 46, Beacon Press 2008
Reflection by Noel Keating: This poem was published in 2008, seventeen years ago, long before we reached the political crisis the world faces today, albeit it has faced similar crises before. This is not the first era that has adored power for the sake of power and cared little for the penury of the many. Yet it was very prescient of Mary Oliver and reminds us that, at times, poetry speaks more eloquently than any other form of speech.
We will be known as a culture that taught and rewarded the amassing of things. Richard Rohr has often written about the desire of the human ego for the three Ps – power, prestige and possessions. As Jesus said in Matthew 6:21 ‘Where your treasure is, there your heart will be.’ When the base desires of the ego become the lens through which we see the world, then truly, as Oliver reminds us, all the world, in our eyes, they will say, was a commodity … and the heart, in those days, was small, and hard, and full of meanness.
Meditation is an antidote to such a world-view. Meditation awakens and expands the human heart; it moves the centre of our consciousness from the head to the heart; from seeing the world through the lens of the ego only, to seeing everything with the eye of the heart. John Main wrote that ‘The process of meditation is the opening of the eye of the heart. This is the deeper and more simple consciousness that allows us to know that we can love and be loved and that we are all in Love.’
John Main reminds us that ‘the all-important aim in Christian meditation is to allow God’s mysterious and silent presence within us to become more and more not only a reality, but the reality which gives meaning, shape and purpose to everything we do, to everything we are.’ Meditation awakens us to the simple but profound truth that the kingdom of God dwells within every human person. It teaches us that living life through the lens of faith is very real and very affirming. We discover that in order to turn toward the kingdom, we must turn away from our smaller selves. As Richard Rohr observes ‘To say, “Thy kingdom come,” we must say in the next breath, “My kingdom go.” Whenever we proclaim “Jesus is Lord!” we are, at the same time, proclaiming that the Empire is not.
The WCCM International Newsletter for January 2025 is now available online. Click on the image to the right to access it.
One of the stories it covers relates to an event organised by Balally Parish which took place in early December 2024. Entitled Building a Parish rooted in Contemplation and Ecumenism, it featured a global conversation with individuals and communities pioneering contemplative approaches to Christianity in diverse settings. Speakers from Balally, Mepkin Abbey in South Carolina and the Benedictus Community in Australia described how they address this hunger through contemplative prayer groups, retreats, and alternative worship services.
The event also spoke to the power of ecumenical collaboration. Reverend Jane Burns from the nearby Church of Ireland parish in Taney spoke movingly about the “blessed” relationship
between the two congregations, exemplified by joint services, community outreach, and shared pilgrimages, including the recent event in Balally with Archbishop Rowan Williams. Watch the full recording
of the event at Balally Parish by clicking here.
WCCM offers a 2-year Academy programme of interdisciplinary study in the context of contemplative practice. The program is facilitated by an international team of experts who are themselves contemplative practitioners. Each academic year comprises three 8 -week terms with breaks in between. All students are encouraged to attend 3 in-person week-long events over the course of the two-years. These are held in Bonnevaux France, the spiritual home of WCCM worldwide and in other venues. All dates are available before the course commences. The Academy programme is a most rewarding and enjoyable experience and a magnificent opportunity to explore contemplative wisdom teachings both in Christian and other wisdom traditions and to learn how this wisdom can be practiced and developed in practical ways in daily life. Click on the image to find out more.
