The annual Dermot Lane Seminar, in honour of theologian Dermot Lane, PP Emeritus of Balally Parish, will take place on Saturday 03 October 2026 from 10 am to 1 pm. The guest speaker, Dr Tony Bates, is a renowned clinical psychologist, writer, and national mental health leader with over four decades of experience in clinical practice,
Dr Bates will address the theme Awakening the Heart from a contemplative and a psychological perspective. Entry €15 on the day – for further information email cinziaangius@balallyparish.ie
Tony is the founder and former CEO of Jigsaw – The National Centre for Youth Mental Health. He was co-editor of Ireland’s National Mental Health Policy ‘A Vision for Change‘, and pioneer of psychotherapy and mindfulness-based interventions. He is also the author of three best selling self-help books on depression, trauma, and mental health care
For those who are already practicing meditation this retreat offers a unique opportunity to join with other practitioners and go to a deeper and simpler place – together in solitude into the ‘great silence’. There will be seven daily periods of meditation, times of contemplative walking and an opportunity for a 15-minute personal session with Liz. Apart from a short morning teaching by the retreat leader there are no spoken prayers or readings. It is a full silence and a loving and friendly experience of what the silence reveals to us . Many who have done it – once or annually – say it has re-simplified them and reminded them that they had not lost their innate capacity for inner peace and clarity. Places are limited – early booking is advised. The fee of €800 includes the retreat, accommodation and 3 excellent meals each day. For further information email cinziaangius@balallyparish.ie Liz Watson is a member of The World Community for Christian Meditation who focuses on teaching meditation in a wide range of settings – speaking and writing – leading retreats and offering spiritual direction.
Dr Barry White will lead a series of four talks on Monday evenings in October as an introduction to the practice of Christian Meditation. The series will be suitable for beginners and experienced meditators alike – John Main often said that we are all beginners and that every time we sit down to meditate we begin anew.
Running on Monday 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th October from 7:30 to 8:30 pm, each talk will include a period of silent meditation. Barry, a Consultant Haematologist from Dublin, has developed an expertise in the area of meditation and health and is a member of the Guiding Board of the World Community for Christian Meditation.
Heather Kearon, who leads a new meditation group in Cahirciveen, has organised a special event to celebration the centenary of Dom John Main OSB to take place on Saturday 10th October 2026, beginning at 10:30am and concluding at 4 pm, followed by Mass for those who wish to stay on. Guest speaker Fr Donagh O’Shea will address the theme ‘A Hundred Roads to Here: An Introduction to Meditation.’
The event will take place at Ballinskelligs Community Centre, Eircode V23 DT28. Tea and Coffee will be provided on arrival from 9:30am. Participants are asked to bring a packed lunch and tea and coffee will be available. A donation of €10 is suggested to cover costs. To register, phone 087 1274903 or 087 2687615 or email: heather.kearon@gmail.com
Also on Saturday 10 October 2026, Dr Bernard McDonald, an oblate of the World Community for Christian Meditation, will lead a day of reflection on the theme ‘Contemplation and Meditation in the Second-half of Life: Towards a Better Way of Being.’ The event will take place at An Tobar Retreat and Spirituality Centre, at Ardbraccan, Navan, Co Meath, C15 XD6H. The workshop will use a mix of reading, discussion, presentations, life review, experiential sharing and meditation to explore what it means to age well in Ireland in 2026.
The Programme for the day will be as follows: 09:30 Coffee and Welcome 10.00 Session 1 – The Experience of Ageing 11.15 Coffee 11.30 Session 2 – Ageing and Contemplation 13.00 Lunch 14.00 Session 3 – Ageing and Spiritual Development 15.30 Session 4 – Meditation and Ageing 16.30 Review and Close. To register for the workshop, contact: An Tobar 046 907 8973
It is with great sadness that we report that our beloved friend and fellow contemplative, Sr Noreen T. Smyth MMM departed this earthly realm on the 5th of September 2026. May she rest in peace. Noreen was born in Ballyhaunis, in the west of Ireland and she had her early years at school in Kerry, the south of the country but her family finally settled in Dublin and it was here she spent most of her childhood and adolescence. After school, aged 18, she went over to England and trained as a nurse and midwife. She worked in London for two years as a theatre nurse and then went to Canada. In Canada, she nursed for two years and then worked with Air Canada as an air hostess for several years. The call to religious life must have been insistent, because in the early 1960’s she returned to Ireland, working as a secretary and receptionist in Dublin while figuring out how to answer God’s call. She was also caring for her niece and two nephews whose mother had sadly died.
When Noreen returned to Ireland in the ’60s, it appears that she felt God’s call to follow Him, while at the same time she was caring for her niece and two nephews whose Mother had sadly died. She finally joined MMM in 1965 at the age of 37 and lived a very worthwhile life as a MMM until her death. She trained as a Clinical Teacher of Nursing in England and brought her newly acquired skills to Afikpo in Nigeria for three years and to the I.M.T.H. in Drogheda for a further three years. Later she developed an interest in Pastoral Ministry and in the early eighties when to the U.S. to be trained in Clinical Pastoral Education.
We came to know Noreen through her other great passion in life which was Christian Meditation. She was deeply committed to our community and was Regional Coordinator for her region. She founded many groups in Ireland. For example, the ten years she spent in Kilmacow caring for the elderly also facilitated her work with the Christian Meditation groups which she accompanied as a spiritual director, as long as she was able. She also led a group in her convent for many years and before moving to Áras Mhuire she managed to visit all the meditation groups in her area and meditate with them.
Noreen finally retired to the Motherhouse in 2011, taking life at an easier pace. Sr. Noreen was soft-spoken and known for her gentleness and attentiveness. She will be greatly missed. Ní imithe uainn atá sí ach imithe romhain.
On Saturday, 19 September, in Balally, Judith Valente led a day of reflection on the Rule of St Benedict and its potential to impact of daily lives. She began by reminding us that the Rule of St Benedict is an excellent guide for living well, that it can be regarded as an ‘anam cara’ offering support and advice throughout our lives. She quoted Joseph Campbell’s saying that people yearn not for a sense of meaning but for the experience of being alive. John Main taught that we can experience this when the head and the heart are aligned. But, as Tony de Mello liked to say, most people sleep-walk through life.
The opening word of the Rule is Listen – and this is about active attentive listening. Not passive listening, but listening attentively with the ear of the heart. Listening is an act of the will. And, paradoxically, we need periods of silence in our lives if we are to learn to listen well and to discern how we are part of something vaster than ourselves, part of the mystery in which we live and move and have our being.
As contemplatives we are called to wakefulness, to be aware as Bob Dylan’s granny told him, that everyone you’ll ever meet is fighting a hard battle. Seeing others and listening to others is a contemplative gift that helps them and us to experience the rapture of being alive. Being attentive to one another also creates community which was the theme of Judith’s second talk. She stressed that each one of us carries a pebble which we are invited to throw into the ocean of need, to add our light to the sum of light. Judith quoted the poem ‘How to Listen’ by James Crews. See the poem below together with a reflection.
How to Listen by James Crews
Listening is a form of worship,
but you don’t have to kneel
on the floor with folded hands
or mouth the perfect prayer.
Just open the door of yourself
to another, become the space
they step through to show you
who they are. This is holiness:
two people seated together
on the pew of a park bench,
at the altar of a kitchen table.
Even if no one says a word
for a while, receive the silence
until it’s like a new language
only the two of you can speak.
Reflection by Noel Keating: I love the opening line of this poem: Listening is a form of worship and how it captures the essence of our meditation experience. There is a delightful symmetry between the acts of holiness, of interpersonal grace, described in the poem and the personal, spiritual surrender implicit in our practice of meditation. The poem suggests that holiness arises when you open the door of yourself/ to another, become the space/ they step through to show you/ who they are; that very act of opening yourself to another is an act of radical hospitality.
Crew’s poem reminds us that true listening is never passive, even if no one says a word/ for a while. Whether we are sitting across from a grieving friend on the pew of a park bench,/ or at the altar of a kitchen table listening is an active offering that creates a spaciousness where the other encounters compassion and love. True listening requires us to lay down our own stories and to step beyond our own internal narratives; it means we must abandon our need for control, and simply be in the transformative, unspoken language of presence which becomes a new language/ only the two of you can speak. The poet’s use of words such as the, pew of a park bench, or the altar of a kitchen table elevates the ordinary act of sitting with another person into a moment sacred encounter, giving rise to a meeting not of minds but of the genuine in each person. Such encounters are the fruit of our meditation practice which awakens the genuine within us, revealing to us who we truly are in the depths of our being and enabling that understanding to make us ever more responsive to the needs around us.
But the poem can also be seen as a metaphor for our meditation practice. In meditation you open the door of yourself/ to another, become the space/ they step through to show you/ who they are: we discover the Spirit of God who dwells in every human heart loving to all. And we discover this is who we truly are, that we have opened the portal to our own true-self. As John Main taught, prayer should not be a question of us doing things, but rather of us opening ourselves up, leaving the egoic-self behind and allowing the Spirit to transfigure our way of seeing the world.
What a lovely image it is to see meditation as two people seated together/ on the pew of a park bench! Does it not capture well the emotional and spiritual posture required when we sit in silent meditation leaving ourselves open and vulnerable to an encounter with the Divine. Does it not describe the reality of our lives at all times but one that we fail to see because we are so caught up in our egoic-self. In our meditation practice we learn to receive the silence/ until it’s like a new language/ only the two of you can speak. A language of the heart which the heart can fully apprehend but which the mind can never comprehend. As John Main wrote: ‘[Meditation], in essence, is learning to stand back and to allow God to come to the forefront of life. … Do not try to unravel the mystery but allow God to unfold his mystery in your heart.’ In other words, true prayer is not a question of us doing things, but rather of us opening ourselves up, leaving the self behind and allowing God to take over. The act of sitting down to mediate is our way of opening the door to the spaciousness within us and our repetition of our mantra is our means of keeping the door open. In the beginning, repeating our sacred word takes effort, but eventually, the repetition carries us beyond language entirely. We learn to trust the silence, receiving it as a gift rather than an awkward void to be filled.
