We wish all in our meditation community a Very Peaceful, Happy and Contemplative New Year! May we all grow in awareness of our true-self, may we deepen our consciousness of who we truly are at the centre of our being, grounded in the Presence that transcends and supports us.
May our commitment to our twice-daily practice of meditation give us ever-greater clarity of perception and draw us ever more authentically toward a life of contemplative service.
On 30 December 2022 WCCM celebrated the 40th anniversary of the death of John Main whose vision and commitment gave us the gift of meditation and led to the foundation of our wonderful world-wide community. As part of the service we listened to his talk ‘The Temple of Your Heart‘ from his last book ‘Moment of Christ‘. Click here to read it.
Irish Oblates and Friends
The Irish Oblate Community runs a monthly Zoom meeting of contemplative prayer and meditation for Irish Oblates and friends, on the first Fiday of each month at 9 a.m.. If you are interested in finding out more about the Oblate community of WCCM, contact Dr Stefan Reynolds, the Irish Oblate Coordinator on stefandreynolds@gmail.com
Benedict's Well
Benedict’s Well is a weekly Zoom meeting for WCCM Oblates and friends. Running from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. GMT it incorporates a short reflection by an invited guest followed by an online meditation. On Mon, 2 January 2023, the speaker will be Dr Stefan Reynolds, Irish Oblate Coordinator. He will address the question ‘What to do for a New Year Resolution?’ Click here to join.
Laurence Freeman will be in Dublin for a short visit early in the new year. He will celebrate a Contemplative Mass on the Feast of the Epiphany, Friday 6 January 2023 at 7 p.m. in the Lane Room at Balally Parish Centre.
The Parish Centre has recently made a room available to be used as a Meditation Room containing a John Main icon. Fr Laurence will bless the room which will be fitted out and prepared for its unique purpose later in the month by Cinzia, a member of the Parish Pastoral Council. All are welcome to attend the Mass.
For the coming year, 2023, WCCM has chosen the theme of Metanoia, a Greek word that refers to a change of mind, a new way of seeing. The full theme is Metanoia – Let your minds be remade and comes right from the heart of the Gospel. Meditation, practices daily and faithfully, has the capacity to change our way of seeing the world and hence our way of being in the world. Meditation, the prayer of the heart, brings about a powerful personal conversion from within which draws us to change direction, to see the illusion of the egoic self and to live life from the perspective of the true-self, of who we are in God and who God is in us.
As usual, WCCM has arranged a series of monthly talks for 2023 exploring the theme of Metanoia. Click the image above to find out more and to register for individual talks of for the full series.
Our own Barry White starts off the series on 17 January with a talk on The Science and Art of Healing. Diane Tolomeo follows on 28 February on the theme ‘Teach Me What I Do Not See‘. David Egan, a philosopher, will speak on 21 March about relationship and equality under the title ‘The Multi-Species Community‘.
Giovanni Felicioni, the Associate Director at Bonnevaux, will speak on 25 April about the importance of living as fully embodied persons under the title ‘Embodiment – In my flesh I shall come face to face with God (Job 19:20)’. On 30 May, Mark Medish, a lawyer will be speak about the importance of democracy in the contemporary world under the title ‘Reflections on Human Scale’. Theologian, Fr Matthew Fox, will speak on 13 June about how religion must change: what is its role in the modern world and how must it unfold if it is to retain relevance in the modern world in a talk entitled ‘Letting Our Minds be Remade regarding Religion.’
Dr Jane Williams, an English theologian, will speak on 25 July about scripture, and how to read and interpret scripture in a changing world: ‘Metanoia: Letting Scripture Remake Our Minds’. Marco Schorlemmer, returns on 5 September addressing the topic of Metanoi from the perspective of technology – how do we change our minds in order for us to be able to be in control of technology rather than to be dominated by it?
On 21 November, Jane and Dennis McAuliffe, from Georgetown University, will be speaking about interfaith and the need for an attitude of tolerance toward and engagement with other faith traditions. Their talk will be entitled ‘Contemplation and a Culture of Encounter.’ And, finally, on 12 December, Mark Carney, an economist and
the UN special envoy for climate change, will explore human understanding of change and the values which must underpin it.
Ring Out, Wild Bells (from In Memoriam) by Lord Alfred Tennyson
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
Athbhliain faoi mhaise daoibh go léir!
Online Meditation at 7:30 p.m. on every Thursday & Sunday evening, Irish time.
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