Fr Laurence Freeman’s new book Tasting Wisdom is now available and can be purchased by contacting Paul Daly by email at paul.daly@eist.ie or by phone on 087 2789390. The book costs €18 plus €3 post and packaging. A book of 365 daily meditations – each just a sentence or two – it offers wisdom with which to begin, end a period of meditation or be read at any time throughout the day. Also available as a Kindle book from Amazon.
Note re Annual Forum of Christian Meditation Ireland clg
At the request of Fr Laurence Freeman, our Annual Forum this year will take place online on the evening of Thursday, 29 May 2025 starting at 8:30 pm Irish time. The Zoom link will be posted in due course. Fr Laurence will address the meeting about the challenges and opportunities facing the Irish Christian Meditation community and about the John Main Seminar 2025 which will be held in Balally Parish from 04-09 November 2025.
On Saturday, 12 April 2025, Balally parish held a day of contemplative reflection with Sean Goan informed by the songs of Leonard Cohen many of whose songs are deeply spiritual. His lyrics are timeless and continue to be a rich source of inspiration for those on a spiritual path in a world that can feel like a spiritual wilderness. The day was very well attended and you may be pleased to learn that the event was recorded. So, if you loved it – or if you weren’t able to attend on the day – the recordings are now available for purchase. Click here for the downloadable version (€10) or here for the CD/USB version (€20) which will be posted out to you and which also contains the slides used on the day.
Our beloved Pope, Francis, has departed this mortal realm and returned to his eternal home. In this reflection today reflect on his legacy. His papacy was a period of hope in the possibility of renewal and restoration of the core teachings and praxis of Jesus to the centre of Church teaching.
Upon assuming the papacy, Cardinal Bergoglio chose the name Francis, a name that caused surprise since it had not been used by any other pope in history. He chose this name in honour of Saint Francis of Assisi, the 13th-century Italian saint known for his life of poverty, humility, and love for creation, values Pope Francis gave witness to throughout his papacy.
Francis, Rebuild My Church by Malcolm Guite
Francis rebuild my church which, as you see
Is falling into ruin.’ From the cross
Your saviour spoke to you and speaks to us
Again through you. Undoing set you free,
Loosened the traps of trappings, cast away
The trammelling of all that costly cloth
We wind our saviour in. At break of day
He set aside his grave-clothes. Your new birth
Came like a daybreak too, naked and true
To poverty and to the gospel call,
You woke to Christ and Christ awoke in you
And set to work through all your love and skill
To make our ruin good, to bless and heal
To wake the Christ in us and make us whole.
Reflection by Noel Keating: This poem was written many years ago by Malcolm Guite in honour of St Francis of Assisi but it reflects very well the values espoused and lived out by Pope Francis all his life and especially during his papacy.
As a young monk in Assisi, St Francis had a vision in which Christ told him: “Go, Francis, and repair my house, which as you see is falling into ruin.” Francis began the task of rebuilding the little chapel by hand. However, as he was to learn later, it was the Catholic Church itself that he was to restore. Our beloved Pope Francis faced a similar task which he undertook with integrity and love, like Francis of Assisi becoming a voice for the poor and most vulnerable in society. He sought an end to conflicts like those in the Middle East, Ukraine and Africa; and he was a passionate advocate for the environment and a global voice for addressing the challenge of climate change as evidenced in his encyclical Laudato Sí.
He offered the world a new vision of the Church as a field hospital where all were welcome and could find solace. He demonstrated through his own humble lifestyle how we can all live a simple, but meaningful life.
The Gospel accounts of Jesus cleansing the temple are typically read during Holy Week when the Church recalls the Passion of Christ. This message – the need to cleanse the temple – was one that Pope Francis understood applied to the Church today. Pope Francis observed that ‘there is always the temptation of corruption within the Church’ [when], ‘instead of being attached to fidelity to the Lord Jesus, the Lord of peace, joy and salvation’, the Church is ‘seduced by money and power’ [which] ‘is not the power Jesus Christ wills for her’.
But we can also consider cleansing the temple – or rebuilding God’s Church – on a personal level. We have faith that, as John Main expressed it: ‘The Spirit of God dwells in our hearts in Silence’. So we should ask ourselves from time to time what in the temple of our own heart needs to be cleansed. Indeed, the word ‘contemplation’ derives from the word templum or ‘temple’, the original meaning of which was a space set aside for worship, not necessarily a physical structure like a church as we imagine today. Laurence Freeman observes that this ‘gives new meaning to St Paul: Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple and God’s Spirit dwells in you? (1 Cor 3:16) So we are space. Not just containers of amazing thoughts and imagination, neural pathways and complex biology. We are the spaciousness of God.’
If we are to play a part in the reformation of the Church, each of us must first begin with ourselves, desiring to change and consenting to being changed. This is why we sit in meditation – we seek an encounter that will change our way of seeing and being in the world. We meditate because we believe it will lead to freedom of spirit and help us to be true to our real selves, to discover our true-self. As Laurence Freeman observes meditation gives rise to ‘a series or succession of linked moments and experiences of liberation from the imprisonment within the disordered ego, and we are released into the liberty of the Spirit.’ And we discover our true-self, who we are in God and who God is in us.
Contemplation is a work of Love. It is not about seeing God, but coming to see how God sees – by allowing God to drive a pathway through, helping us to let go of all that prevents such seeing. Speaking about contemplative prayer, Pope Francis noted that ‘The contemplative dimension of the human being … is a bit like the “salt” of life: it gives flavour, it seasons our day. And he reminds us that ‘To contemplate is not a way of doing, but a way of being. And being contemplative does not depend on the eyes, but on the heart. And here prayer enters into play as an act of faith and love, as the “breath” of our relationship with God. Prayer purifies the heart and, with it, it also sharpens our gaze, allowing it to grasp reality from another point of view.’ He went on to remind us that ‘Contemplation is a gaze of faith, fixed on Jesus. I look at him and he looks at me. … Everything comes from this: from a heart that feels that it is looked on with love. Then reality is contemplated with different eyes.
“I look at him and he looks at me!”. … A gaze is enough. It is enough to be convinced that our life is surrounded by an immense and faithful love that nothing can ever separate us from. Jesus was a master of this gaze. His life never lacked the time, space, silence, the loving communion that allows one’s existence not to be devastated by the inevitable trials, but to maintain beauty intact. His secret was his relationship with his heavenly Father… And this is the path of contemplative prayer: I look at him and he looks at me. This act of love in silent dialogue with Jesus does so much good for the Church.’ Like St Francis, Pope Francis woke to Christ and Christ awoke in him and set to work through all his love and skill to make our ruin good, to bless and heal, to wake the Christ in us and make us whole. May our daily practice awaken the Christ in us and make us whole.
