Contemplative Revolution: Recent Episodes
WCCM Podcast
Stefan Reynolds shares his journey into meditation, beginning at the age of 19 in India. He discusses the significance of places like Bonnevaux, and how the environment fosters a sense of community and tranquility. He also delves into the teachings of mystics, especially Teresa of Avila and John Main, emphasizing the importance of stillness and trust in the meditation process. Stefan highlights how these teachings can guide individuals in their spiritual journeys, likening meditation to learning to swim in the ocean of God.Stefan is leading the retreat Deepening Meditation - Launching Out (12-17 May in Bonnevaux). https://bonnevauxwccm.org/all-programmes/deepening-meditation-2026/Images by Michael Heck and Ben Kerckx (Pixabay and WikipediaSoundtrack by JoshMusic (Pixabay)
If you’ve enjoyed listening to this podcast, You can watch the full Speaker Series on wccm+ at wccmplus.org
Martin Laird OSA works regularly with the World Community for Christian Meditation. To learn more visit wccm.org
This audio is part of talks 1 and 2 of a series of Meditatio Talks that were held in 2015.
Podcast image from Jpeter2, from Pixabay
In this podcast, you’ll listen to the first talk of the retreat The Tightrope of Moderation which was held during Bonnevaux 2020 Lent Retreat by Laurence Freeman & Giovanni Felicioni. The first talk's titled Getting Ready for the Mysteries.
You can learn more and register for Contemplating Earth course by Jim Green on wccm.org here
For more outreach initiatives on the topic of climate, please visit the Outreach Nature & Environment page on wccm.org
This is an audio extract from module 1 Now/Apocalypse as part of the online course 'Contemplating Earth' by Jim Green
This course has a particular scope and intention. We want to focus on a fundamental aspect of the human response to this stark uncovering of our current endangered situation. Because the challenge now facing us is so total – so immediate and vast – there are many ways of trying to approach and understand it. The course will not ignore the different perspectives on this global existential threat: scientific, political, social, ecological, cultural and economic languages are all central in addressing the great danger of our times.
If you're interested in listening to the full seminar, you can explore the course 'Hope for the Future' on the wccm.org website
Listen to Pascale Callec, the French National coordinator, she’s been part of WCCM for 10 years. She works in public services management and facilitating the expression of the common good is her deepest motivation. She’s committed to the ecological transition alongside her husband.
This talk was part of the short talks from the online John Main Seminar 2021.
This talk was recorded during the pre-retreat of the 2018 John Main Seminar with the theme Experience and Meaning. This resource is free for all Supporting Members or can be purchased as an individual offering. More here: https://wccm.org/offerings/experience-and-meaning/
In this podcast, Father Laurence Freeman speaks about meditation in the monastic tradition. The word tradition is a dynamic word: it means 'transmission', it's a process in which we are constantly receiving, adapting and passing on -the very nature of the Gospel, a transmission of a living word.
Laurence then continues on talking of John Main as a contemporary figure within this ancient tradition. This talk is part of A Week of Study and Practice at San Anselmo, Rome, Italy, 2015.
To access the full content from the retreat, please visit the online Course Health, Healing, Wholeness
If you've enjoyed watching this video, you can become a Supporting Member and get access to the full course here: https://wccm.org/offerings/silence/
This is part of the Monte Oliveto 2018 retreat - Being alone together - which you can access on the wccm.org website here
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Get access to the full Milestones course here on the wccm.org website
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
This episode is part of the series of monthly talks Wisdom Living & the Joy of Connection a journey through the roots of meditation in the Christian Tradition as experienced in the circumstances of modern life by younger people. Learn more here
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This is the opening talk by James Alison of the retreat 'Basic Christianity: what does the “real thing” look like when all the kitsch has collapsed?' Online Seminar, 21-26 July 2020
Coming soon: James is leading a new online retreat from Bonnevaux!
5 - 9 May 2021: Basic Christianity: An Induction into the Life of Jesus the Forgiving Victim
A 5-day retreat examining the central elements of the Christian faith, with James Alison. More info and registrations here.
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
This is the opening talk of the Monte Oliveto Retreat 2018 led by Laurence Freeman OSB and Giovanni Felicioni. This is also part of the course Being Alone Together whichyou can find in the Offerings section of the wccm.org website.
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
This is part of the Meditation as a Modern Spiritual Path course available on the wccm.org website.
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
This is part of the Monte Oliveto retreat which took place in 2015 led by Laurence Freeman OSB and Giovanni Felicioni.
You can find the full content from the retreat in the online course Love and the Gift of Failure
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This talk is part of the course the Eight Big Problems of Life available on wccm.org
In this course, Laurence will develop the schema of the “eight principal faults” and show how understanding them as patterned states of mind will help us to overcome them – making both meditations, relationships and daily life a great deal easier.
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Bernard is the Naomi Shenstone Donnelly Professor emeritus of the University of Chicago, where he taught for thirty-four years before retiring in 2003. Since his retirement, he has continued to teach, lecture and write. His major work is a history of western Christian mysticism under the general title The Presence of God, seven volumes of which have been published between 1991 and 2017.
To continue your journey on Christian Mysticism, we recommend the course The Roots of Christian Mysticism: First Term
The entire course is divided into 3 terms and each term consists of 8 Lessons. Each lesson focuses on a mystic, and we learn about the times they lived in, their life witness and their spirituality. Each lesson also has extracts from their writings and inspirations to help us in our spiritual practice. There is also a bibliography, audio and visual recordings to allow you to explore further. This course is not just an intellectual exercise but a journey from the mind to the heart – a spiritual journey of discovery. So we invite you to meditate at the beginning of each lesson and to experience this contemplative dimension of faith.
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Sarah Bachelard is an internationally respected theologian, retreat leader and priest. She is the founder and leader of Benedictus Contemplative Church in Canberra, Australia and an honorary fellow at the Australian Catholic University. Sarah was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University where she studied theology with former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. She is the author of two books, Experiencing God in a Time of Crisis and Resurrection and Moral Imagination.
You can register for the full A Contemplative Christianity for our Time by Sarah Bachelard here.
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Sarah Bachelard is a theologian, retreat leader and priest in Anglican Orders. She lives in Canberra in Australia where she has taught in the areas of theology, ethics and spirituality at Charles Sturt University. She is currently director of Benedictus Contemplative Church. She is a member of the WCCM and was a keynote speaker at the John Main Seminar in Montreal in 2007 and at the John Main Seminar 2019 in Vancouver, with the theme “A Contemplative Christianity for our Time”.
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Professor Peter Gilbert was Professor of Social Work and Spirituality at Staffordshire University. He worked as the Project lead of National Spirituality and Mental Health Forum and Chair of the National Development Team for Inclusion. His latest book is called Spirituality and Mental Health which promotes an understanding of people’s belief systems and proves the increasing importance of spirituality in health and social care.
This talk was part of the Meditation and Mental Health Seminar which took place in London in 2011. You can watch the full recordings of the seminar by visiting the WCCM website.
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
You can read the full article here
About Herman Van Rompuy
Herman Van Rompuy is a Belgian politician, who served as Prime Minister of Belgium from 2008 to 2009 and then as the first permanent President of the European Council from 2009 to 2014. More recently, in 2018, he was one of the speakers at the John Main Seminar 2018, in Belgium addressing the theme Politics and the management of division.
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Servol is an organization of weak, frail, ordinary, imperfect yet hope-filled and committed people seeking to help weak, frail, ordinary, hope-drained people become agents of attitudinal and social change in a journey which leads to total human development. Servol was born out of the challenges of the country’s Black Power Revolution of 1970 in which a number of persons and groups sought to challenge racial inequality and force social, economic and political change. Learn more here.
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You can watch the animation video What is Christian Meditation? by Paul Demeyer here.
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
This is talk one of Sources of Wisdom, an online retreat on essential teaching of meditation provided by The School of Meditation. The time of self-isolating and social distance that we are currently experiencing is a kind of extended Lent: a voluntary restriction which reminds us of the limited control we have in reality – at any time – over the circumstances of our daily lives. A willing and conscious entering into these limitations can, paradoxically, bring us to an unexpected experience of limitless freedom. This is also how a retreat will work. Another way of thinking of our new collective social reality is that we are undertaking an enormous global retreat. Some are following it more attentively than others; some are quite unaware that they are on this retreat, but more and more are quieting down and joining in. Given that most of our communication and exploration is – for the moment – online, what better time to take part in an online retreat? You can learn more about this retreat and register here.
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Australian researcher and academic, professor Anne Graham worked as a professor of childhood studies, leading research at a centre for children and young people. Anne Graham is Professor of Childhood Studies and Founding Director of the Centre for Children and Young People at Southern Cross University. A primary school teacher and sociologist by background, Anne has worked in teacher education for 20 years.
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Born on a farm in Alberta, Canada, Jack Murta entered politics young. Driven by a large dose of ambition, he was also guided by his faith and easy connection with ordinary people. After a successful career in Ottawa, he became involved in caring for the homeless of Ottawa while also nurturing the spiritual aspect of the lives of many politicians. As a meditator now for nearly 20 years, he became WCCM Canadian National Coordinator.
This talk was part of the Contemplative Path Through the Crisis Programme. You can learn more here.
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Born in Canada, when she qualified as a medical doctor, Julia worked in North America, South Africa and other developing countries. She was struck by the embedded inequality in the developed world where she found people suffering conditions of life and neglect on par with those in the poorest parts of the word. This led her to work for the UN on HIV and child health issues. Encountering the Bhutan project of sustainable development that recognised the goal of happiness as the sensible common purpose of all social planning.
View the full article on the Contemplative Through the Crisis Programme website here.
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This podcast Waiting is Being Fully Present was held by Father Laurence Freeman during the Bonnevaux Advent retreat in 2019.
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This is part of the Contemplative Through The Crisis programme held in April 2020.
You can read more about Kim's reflection here.
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Liz Watson has been a member of WCCM for over 20 years and now focuses on teaching meditation in a variety of settings, leading retreats in the UK and beyond, and offering spiritual direction.
These talks are part of a Contemplative Path Through the Crisis programme. You can learn more about it here.
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Andrew Harvey is a British author, religious scholar and teacher of mystic traditions, known primarily for his popular nonfiction books on spiritual or mystical themes.
This talk is part of the Contemplative Path Through the Crisis Programme. You can read more HERE
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Originally from Hong Kong, FR. JOSEPH H. WONG, O.S.B. Cam, is a Benedictine monk of the Camaldolese Congregation. He holds BA in English literature from London University, MT from the same University, and STD from the Gregorian University in Rome. Fr. Wong is a member of the Pontifcal Academy of Teology and has taught systematic theology at the Salesian University in Rome. As a monk of the Monastery of Camaldoli in Italy, he periodically teaches theology and spirituality at two seminaries in China. He is interested in inculturating Christian faith into the Chinese context. He is the author or editor of several books and many articles, in Chinese, English and Italian.
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
"The heart is the very spiritual symbol, the place of prayer...is the store room which keeps things fresh and available, from which we can receive enrichment and nourishment." says Laurence in this talk. "When you pray go into your inner room, the heart." It's a dynamic symbol: as we enter into our heart, our inner room , the symbol of the heart reminds us that we're doing something dynamic. The prayer of the heart is rhythmic, regular, peaceful but essentially dynamic.
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Know more on The Contemplative Path Through the Crisis HERE
Watch all talks from this series HERE
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
In this talk Bede Griffiths invites to reflect on the message Father John Main has left us as a way to discover for ourselves the tradition of this wisdom, the knowledge of God through love.
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In this episode, we’ll get to hear from David Tacey, reader in literature and depth psychology at La Trobe University, Melbourne. Here’s David talk at the John Main Seminar 2015 in New Zealand.
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The John Main Seminar 2020 will focus on the theme 'One Heart, One Hope - Indigenous wisdom, and the future of humanity' It is organized by the Community in Mexico and will be held fully online, from 19 to 22 October 2020. You can find more information and registrations here: http://www.johnmainseminar.org
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Know more on The Contemplative Path Through the Crisis on http://acontemplativepath-wccm.org/
Watch all talks from this series on https://acontemplativepath-wccm.org/towards-a-new-renaissance-a-conversation-with-david-lorimer/
David Lorimer was originally a merchant banker then a teacher of philosophy and modern languages at Winchester College and the author and editor of over a dozen books, including The Spirit of Science, Thinking beyond the Brain and A New Renaissance. He is Programme Director of the Scientific and Medical Network and former President of Wrekin Trust and the Swedenborg Society.
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Any gift, no matter how small, will help us in our mission to share the gift of Christian meditation for the unity of all. https://io-wccm.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=69
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Know more on The Contemplative Path Through the Crisis on http://acontemplativepath-wccm.org/
Watch all talks from this series on http://acontemplativepath-wccm.org/2020/05/07/a-contemplative-politician-on-corona-herman-van-rompuy-with-laurence-freeman/
Herman Van Rumpoy is a Belgian politician, who served as Prime Minister of Belgium from 2008 to 2009 and then as the first permanent President of the European Council from 2009 to 2014. More recently, in 2018, he was one of the speakers at the John Main Seminar 2018, in Belgium addressing the theme Politics and the management of division.
SUPPORT OUR WORK:
Any gift, no matter how small, will help us in our mission to share the gift of Christian meditation for the unity of all. https://io-wccm.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=69
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Know more on The Contemplative Path Through the Crisis HERE
Watch all talks from this series HERE
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Know more on The Contemplative Path Through the Crisis here
Watch all talks from this series here
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Know more on The Contemplative Path Through the Crisis here
Watch all talks from this series here
Kim Nataraja has been a contemplative since her youth and joined The World Community for Christian Meditation in 1993. In 1998 she became a Benedictine Oblate to the Community. From 1999 to 2016, Kim was director of The World Community for Christian Meditation School of Meditation.
Kim is a trained Spiritual Director and has held a variety of meditation days/weekends and retreats in the UK, Europe, the US, Canada and Singapore. Her particular interests are those inspiring figures from the Christian spiritual tradition, who guide us in the contemplative life, and the ways in which psychological insights can aid our progress. Kim is a retired College Lecturer and former Head of Department of Modern Languages.
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Know more on The Contemplative Path Through the Crisis HERE
Watch all talks from this series HERE
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Know more on The Contemplative Path Through the Crisis HERE
Watch all talks from this series HERE
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Know more on The Contemplative Path Through the Crisis HERE
Watch all talks from this series HERE
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Know more on The Contemplative Path Through the Crisis HERE
Watch all talks from this series HERE
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Know more on The Contemplative Path Through the Crisis HERE
Watch all talks from this series HERE
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Know more on The Contemplative Path Through the Crisis HERE
Watch all talks from this series HERE
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Know more on The Contemplative Path Through the Crisis HERE
Watch all talks from this series HERE
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Know more on The Contemplative Path Through the Crisis here
Watch all talks from this series here
Kim Nataraja has been a contemplative since her youth and joined The World Community for Christian Meditation in 1993. In 1998 she became a Benedictine Oblate to the Community. From 1999 to 2016, Kim was director of The World Community for Christian Meditation School of Meditation.
Kim is a trained Spiritual Director and has held a variety of meditation days/weekends and retreats in the UK, Europe, the US, Canada and Singapore. Her particular interests are those inspiring figures from the Christian spiritual tradition, who guide us in the contemplative life, and the ways in which psychological insights can aid our progress. Kim is a retired College Lecturer and former Head of Department of Modern Languages.
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Know more on The Contemplative Path Through the Crisis here
Watch all talks from this series here
Herman Van Rumpoy is a Belgian politician, who served as Prime Minister of Belgium from 2008 to 2009 and then as the first permanent President of the European Council from 2009 to 2014. More recently, in 2018, he was one of the speakers at the John Main Seminar 2018, in Belgium addressing the theme Politics and the management of division.
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Know more on The Contemplative Path Through the Crisis HERE
Watch all talks from this series here
Claudia Nielsen is a psychotherapist and meditator working in London.
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
This talk is part of the course The Shape of Christian Virtue.Learn more and watch here
Sarah Bachelard is a theologian, retreat leader and priest in Anglican Orders. She lives in Canberra in Australia where she has taught in the areas of theology, ethics and spirituality at Charles Sturt University. She is currently director of Benedictus Contemplative Church. She is a member of the WCCM and was a keynote speaker at the John Main Seminar in Montreal in 2007 and at the John Main Seminar 2019 in Vancouver, with the theme “A Contemplative Christianity for our Time”.
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Know more on The Contemplative Path Through the Crisis HERE
Watch all talks from this series here
Alan Wallace is the founder and director of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies and the motivating force behind the development of the Center for Contemplative Research in Tuscany, Italy.
Eva Natanya is a scholar of Christian systematic theology and Tibetan Buddhism, with long-term experience in interreligious dialogue worldwide.
Laurence Freeman OSB is a Benedictine monk of the Olivetan Congregation and Director of The World Community for Christian Meditation and of Bonnevaux, its international center in France.
Know more on The Contemplative Path Through the Crisis HERE
Watch all talks from this series here
Alan Wallace is the founder and director of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies and the motivating force behind the development of the Center for Contemplative Research in Tuscany, Italy.
Eva Natanya is a scholar of Christian systematic theology and Tibetan Buddhism, with long-term experience in interreligious dialogue worldwide.
Laurence Freeman OSB is a Benedictine monk of the Olivetan Congregation and Director of The World Community for Christian Meditation and of Bonnevaux, its international center in France.
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Listen to all talks from this Conference here:
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Dr Barry is Consultant Haematologist from Dublin and he was the first National Director of Clinical Care for the Irish Health Executive. He has been working with Laurence Freeman to teach meditation at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and to the healtchare environment
Listen to all talks here
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Mike Sarson is founder of East West Organization charity which offers a choice of unique holistic interventions for the prevention, treatment and recovery from addictions.
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Kim Nataraja is a WCCM Benedictine Oblate and former Director of The School of Meditation. She leads retreats worldwide and is a Spiritual Director. She edited and co-authored Journey to the Heart - Christian Contemplation through the Centuries - an illustrated Guide (Canterbury Press) which was based on the first Roots course held in 2003.
You can find Roots of Christian Mysticism online course here
You can find the book Journey to the Heart here
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Shaikh Kabir Helminski has lived with Rumi for more than 40 years, as a translator, and as someone trained in the living tradition that began 750 years ago with Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi. This conference was part of the Meditatio Centre London Programme, 2019.
SLIDE PRESENTATION - Download here
Order the Meditatio Journal on Crisis, based on the JMS 2018
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EPISODE NOTES
Watch to all the talks from the Seminar Contemplative Care: Healthcare and Meditation HERE
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This talk is part of the Contemplative Christianity for our Time Course.
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Watch to all the talks from the Seminar in Prague here.
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.
In this episode we’ll hear Bernard McGinn speak about the nature of mysticism, its development and its importance for the contemporary world. Professor McGuinn recaptures the riches of the mystical tradition and invites us to enter into the practical character of it.
Bernard McGinn is widely regarded as the preeminent scholar of mysticism in the Western Christian tradition.. This talk was part of a John Main Seminar held at the University of St Thomas, in Houston, Texas.
In this episode we’ll hear Bernard McGinn speak about the nature of mysticism, its development and its importance for the contemporary world. Professor McGuinn recaptures the riches of the mystical tradition and invites us to enter into the practical character of it.
Bernard McGinn is widely regarded as the preeminent scholar of mysticism in the Western Christian tradition.. This talk was part of a John Main Seminar held at the University of St Thomas, in Houston, Texas.
Fr. Laurence speaks about the need of teaching the richness of our contemplative tradition and the knowledge and wisdom behind the simple repetition of a sacred word. This talk was part of a John Main Seminar at Quest University in Squammish, Canada.
Music Credits: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions
Fr Laurence Freeman speaks about Ripeness, a stage of the journey where a new dimension of Knowledge is acquired, and our Identity becomes sharper as we become more mysterious to ourselves. This is the third talk of the Milestones Series recorded at the Meditatio Centre, in London.
Wisdom shows the stages of life we all pass through in uniquely personal ways. Meditation as a way of wisdom illuminates these stages of the journey of life and has its own milestones. In this series of talks Fr Laurence will show how the journey of meditation deepens the journey of life and gives us the courage and vision to live life as fully conscious travellers.
Laurence Freeman is a Benedictine monk and the spiritual successor of John Main. He is the Director of The World Community for Christian Meditation. Author, retreat leader and international speaker, Fr Laurence sees the contemplative as the essential dimension of all spirituality.
These sonnets by the poet Rilke stand as one of the masterpieces of German poetry. Written near the end of his life in a brief period of intense creativity, the poems invite us to open our lives to the depths and to find new courage to indwell the world with creative passion. Our exploration of these poems will invite us to answer the poet’s call to “do the heart-work” with the memories and experiences of our lives, since—as he suggests—“the world, the more we observe it, wants to flourish in love.” As do we! The question is, how? This meditative day will engage this question, offering participants a chance to engage these remarkable poems slowly, and engage them in the depths. We will use a new translation of these poems by the retreat leader.
Mark S. Burrows is a frequent presenter at the Meditatio Centre and is well known internationally as a retreat leader and speaker. He is Professor of Religion and Literature at the University of Applied Sciences in Bochum (Germany). His academic work explores the mystical literature of Christianity with a special interest in the intersection of mysticism and poetics. He edits poetry for the journal Spiritus and Arts. His publications include: Rainer Maria Rilke’s Prayers of a Young Poet (Paraclete Press, 2016), SAID’s 99 Psalms (2013), Meister Eckhart’s Book of the Heart: Meditations for the Restless Soul in collaboration with Jon Sweeney (Hamden House, 2017) and most recently a collection of his poems, The Chance of Home (2018).
www.msburrows.com
Sean Hagan shares his personal experience as a leader and how his meditation practice has enabled him to upgrade his leadership style by engaging more effectively and more consciously and by learning to make better decisions over time. Sean Hagan was General Counsel and Director of the Legal Department at the International Monetary Fund. He is currently a Visiting Professor at Georgetown Law School. He is a member of both the Executive Committee and Advisory Council for the WCCM. This talk was part of a John Main Seminar in Bruges, Belgium.
Sean Hagan was the IMF’s General Counsel for fourteen years (2004-2018). In this capacity, Professor Hagan advised the IMF’s management, Executive Board and membership on all legal aspects of the IMF’s operations, including its regulatory, advisory and lending functions.
Prior to beginning work at the IMF, Professor Hagan was in private practice, first in New York and subsequently in Tokyo. Professor Hagan received his Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center and also received a Masters of Science in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
During the 2018-2019 Academic year, Professor Hagan has been Visiting Fellow at Oxford University (Exeter College).
Fr Laurence Freeman speaks about how meditation and the restoration of the real meaning of leisure are ways of recovering the contemplative experience in an age of distraction. This retreat Talk took place at Monte Oliveto in Italy.
Music Credits: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions
Almost everything you think you know about differences between the brain hemispheres is wrong. The topic was taken over and distorted by pop psychology,and hence understandably, but nonetheless irrationally, neglected by the mainstream.So why is the brain, an organ that exists only to make connections, divided and asymmetrical? What does it tell us about the structure of the world we inhabit? Iain McGilchrist will argue that lateralisation is now the topic in neuroscience of greatest significance for understanding the human condition.
Dr Iain McGilchristis a former Fellow of All Souls College,Oxford, a Fellow of the RoyalCollege of Psychiatrists, a Fellowof the Royal Society of Arts, andformer Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Director at theBethlem Royal & Maudsley Hospital, London. He has been a Research Fellow in neuroimaging at Johns Hopkins Hospital,Baltimore. He is best known asthe author of The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World(Yale 2009).
Music Credits: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions
The Contemplative Executive
Speaking from the experience of his own quest for "meaning, depth, significance, and purpose" in life, Peter Ng says: "The first challenge ... is to take a step away from the busyness of the business world." This step he found in the simple practicality of John Main's teaching on meditation.
Download the transcript here: tiny.cc/ContemplativeExecutive
- Wisdom and Transformation
- The Road Less Travelled
- Contemplative Consciousness
- Meditation and Leadership
- The Ethical Mind
- Happiness and Success
- Abandonment of Desire
Deep ecological awareness is a spiritual state of consciousness, and without the activation of spirit it is difficult to achieve this awareness. Secular policies and green politics may not be able to work the transformation that is required. This talk will explore the entry into ecological awareness as an initiation into the transpersonal and universal dimensions of spirit.
David Tacey is Emeritus Professor of Humanities at La Trobe University, Melbourne, and Research Professor at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, Canberra. He is an interdisciplinary scholar and public intellectual who has written extensively on spirituality, religion, youth experience and mental health. He is the author of fourteen books, including The Spirituality Revolution.
Music Credits: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions
Two ground breaking Christian thinkers discuss the meaning of homosexuality for today. Why has a natural human orientation so often been cruelly punished and persecuted by church authorities? Why do churches still split over the issue? James and Sarah will explore these questions and suggest how this tragic history in a religion of love can be given a new direction today through intellectual honesty and contemplative wisdom.
James is a Catholic priest, theologian and author. His principal work has been as interpreter of the thought of the French thinker René Girard (1923-2015). Author of several books, his most recent publication is a course of introduction to the Christian Faith for adults – Jesus the Forgiving Victim– using Girard’s thought throughout.James is also known as someone who has, firmly but gently, stood up for truthfulness in matters LGBTQI in the life of the Church.
Sarah is a theologian, retreat leader and priest in Anglican Orders. She is a member of WCCM and an honorary research fellow at the Australian Catholic University. She also leads Benedictus, an ecumenical contemplative community. Sarah is the author of Experiencing God in a Time of Crisis and Resurrection and Moral Imagination.
This is the second talk in the Milestones series. In this episode Fr Laurence Freeman speaks about maturing into the contemplative consciousness.
Laurence Freeman is a Benedictine monk and the spiritual successor to John Main. He is the Director of The World Community for Christian Meditation. Author, retreat leader and international speaker.
This Talk was recorded at the Meditatio Centre, in London.
Music Credits: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions
n this dialogue Dr Wallace explores the themes of enlightenment and salvation and responds to questions such as:
Are salvation and enlightenment the same?
Is grace at work in the individual journey?
At what levels do (or can) different traditions achieve sameness?
Is the origin of grace within or without yourself, and where is the demarcation?
Does Christianity treat God as an emotional projection?
Alan Wallace is a prominent voice in the emerging discussion between contemporary Buddhist thinkers and scientists who question the materialist presumptions of their 20th-century paradigms. He left his college studies in 1971 and moved to Dharamsala, India, to study Tibetan Buddhism, medicine and language. He was ordained by H.H. the Dalai Lama, and over fourteen years as a monk he studied with and translated for several of this generation’s greatest lamas. He is founder of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies.
Music Credits: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions
In this episode we’ll hear Bernard McGinn speak about the nature of mysticism, its development and its importance for the contemporary world. Professor McGuinn recaptures the riches of the mystical tradition and invites us to enter into the practical character of it.
Bernard McGinn is widely regarded as the preeminent scholar of mysticism in the Western Christian tradition.. This talk was part of a John Main Seminar held at the University of St Thomas, in Houston, Texas.
Music Credits: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions
Fr. Laurence speaks about the need of teaching the richness of our contemplative tradition and the knowledge and wisdom behind the simple repetition of a sacred word. This talk was part of a John Main Seminar at Quest University in Squammish, Canada.
Music Credits: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions
Underlying Rumi’s magnificent poetry is a coherent world-view and spiritual psychology. A living tradition of human transformation has continued in the spirit of his legacy. Through contemplative practice, ceremony, metaphysical reflection, artistic expression, and community service a process of psycho-spiritual maturity has been refined. We will explore the fundamentals of this tradition and consider how they might be applied in today’s world.
Kabir Helminski is the Co-Director of the ThresholdSociety, a non-profit educational foundation that has developed programs that provide a structure for practice and study within Sufism and spiritual psychology. He has been working within the Mevlevi tradition of Sufism for about thirty years and has translated many volumes of Sufi literature, including many works of Rumi. http://www.meditatio.co.uk/
Music Credits: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions
Herman Van Rompuy speaks about the crisis of democracy and what habits leaders need to be learned in order to give people some hope in the future of democracy. Herman Van Rompuy is a Belgian politician and former President of the European Council. This talk was part of a John Main Seminar in Bruges.
Music Credits: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions
There is no Christian zen but Christians can do zen and grow in wisdom. Zen is about personal liberation and growth. Zen is about the opening of the heart.
Robert E. Kennedy, S.J. directs a number of communities practicing interfaith zen in the metro New York-New Jersey-Connecticut area. Roshi Kennedy is an American Jesuit priest and a Zen master. He is the founding teacher of Morning Star Zendo in New Jersey. His books include "Zen Spirit, Christian Spirit" and "Zen Gifts to Christians." Kennedy sits with his Zen students daily at the Morning Star Zendo in Jersey City, NJ
Music Credits: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions
This Talk on Faith and Belonging was part of the John Main Seminar 2018: A Contemplative Response to the Crisis of Change 20-23 Sep, Bruges, Belgium.
Teresa Forcades, a Spanish Benedictine nun, theologian, physician and political activist, is one of Europe’s leading radical thinkers. She came to prominence for her eloquent condemnation of abuses by some of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies. She founded a leading Catalonian anti-capitalist independence movement and is one of the leading voices in the world today against the injustices of capitalism and the patriarchy of modern society and of her own church.
The next John Main Seminar 2020 will focus on the theme 'One Heart, One Hope - Indigenous wisdom, and the future of humanity' It is organized by the Community in Mexico and will be held fully online, from 19 to 22 October 2020. You can find more information and registrations here: http://www.johnmainseminar.org
This is the third talk Jean Vanier gave at the John Main Seminar in Trosly, France in 2016. Jean Vanier, who died in May 2019, was the founder of L’Arche.
Why do we fear those different from us? Through the mission of L’Arche Jean Vanier explains how people grow and discover the beauty of their being. This is done by not changing people but revealing to them, by presence, that they are beautiful because they are children of God. The biggest revolution is imitating God by remaining silent and listening, by being present.
Jean Vanier was a philosopher, writer, religious and moral leader and the founder of two major international community-based organizations, L’Arche and Faith and Light, that exist for people with intellectual disabilities.
https://jean-vanier.org/en/meet-jean/introduction
Music Credits: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions
This is the first talk in the Milestones series. In this episode Fr Laurence Freeman speaks about the spiritual and psychological aspects of our life journey and how the practice of meditation leads to the recovery of the essential childlike state.
John Main saw meditation as the recovery of our innocence. We recover the essential qualities we had as children, our innocence, through our mature relationship to our Source, our ontological parenthood in God as the ultimate ground of our being.
Wisdom shows the stages of life we all pass through in uniquely personal ways. Meditation as a way of wisdom illuminates these stages of the journey of life and has its own milestones. In this series of talks Fr Laurence will show how the journey of meditation deepens the journey of life and gives us the courage and vision to live life as fully conscious travellers.
Laurence Freeman is a Benedictine monk and the spiritual successor to John Main. He is the Director of The World Community for Christian Meditation. Author, retreat leader and international speaker, Fr Laurence sees the contemplative as the essential dimension of all spirituality.
This Talk was recorded at the Meditatio Centre, in London.
Music Credits: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions
This is the second talk Sarah Bachelard gave on the Silent Retreat at the University of Waikato in 2017. She expands on the relationship between contemplative practice and active life: how contemplation changes the agent and shifts his/her vision to see the nature of reality, and the context in which he/she is acting.
Experiencing God is not about having a particular experience, it is about having the ground or the context for all our experiences. God is that in which everything else is contained.
To experience God (to experience Love) is to experience the ultimate reality for us as gift and grace. It is to experience ourselves at home.
The christian faith offers a particular vision of God and human possibilities in relation to God, when this sense of things is alive for us, it transforms how we act. It leads to those full of faith to trust in abundance, it leads them to generosity and courage and to trust that there is a direction in our lives that is given. God is present and active. The power of reconciliation is at work in the world. It invites us to live and act in hope, even in situations that seem hopeless. Meditation leads us to this experience of reality, to this possibility of faith.
This talk was part of a Silent a Silent Retreat led by the Rev. Dr. Sarah Bachelard in the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand January 2017.
Sarah Bachelard is an internationally respected theologian, retreat leader and priest. She is the founder and leader of Benedictus Contemplative Church in Canberra, Australia and an honorary fellow at the Australian Catholic University. Sarah was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University where she studied theology with former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. She is the author of two books, Experiencing God in a Time of Crisis and Resurrection and Moral Imagination.
This Talk on New Ways of Wisdom was part of the John Main Seminar 2018: A Contemplative Response to the Crisis of Change 20-23 Sep, Bruges, Belgium.
Charles Taylor is a Canadian philosopher known for his examination of the modern self. Taylor’s first major work, Hegel (1975), was a large study of the 19th-century German philosopher that emphasized the ways in which Hegel’s philosophy continues to be relevant to contemporary political and social theory. In 1989 Taylor published Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity, which explored the multiplicity of the self, or the human subject, in the modern Western world.
Music Credits: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions
This is the second talk Jean Vanier gave at the John Main Seminar in Trosly, France in 2016. Jean Vanier spoke about the discovery of the light through the cracks in our world, the fear of the different and the human transformation experienced through the proximity with the weak.
Why do we fear those different? Through the mission of L’Arche Jean Vanier explains how people grow and discover the beauty of their being. This is done by not changing people but revealing to them, by presence, that they are beautiful because they are children of God. The biggest revolution is imitating God by remaining silent and listening, by being present.
Jean Vanier was a philosopher, writer, religious and moral leader and the founder of two major international community-based organizations, L’Arche and Faith and Light, that exist for people with intellectual disabilities.
https://jean-vanier.org/en/meet-jean/introduction
Music Credits: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions
This Talk was part of a John Main Seminar in Hamilton, New Zeland.
David Tacey is Emeritus Professor of Humanities at La Trobe University, Melbourne, and Research Professor at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, Canberra. He is an interdisciplinary scholar and public intellectual who has written extensively on spirituality, religion, youth experience and mental health. He is the author of fourteen books, including The Spirituality Revolution.
This Talk was part of the John Main Seminar 2018: A Contemplative Response to the Crisis of Change 20-23 Sep, Bruges, Belgium.
The concept of Contemplative Medicine which places meditation at the centre of its insights is being developed by Dr Barry White, a consultant haematologist at St James’s Hospital, Dublin and member of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland.
SLIDE PRESENTATION - Download here: adobe.ly/2OlCJKc
Music Credits: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions
This talk was held at Saint James Episcopal Church, in Lancaster, PA, USA. In 2018
Laurence Freeman is a Benedictine monk of the Congregation of Monte Oliveto and Director of The World Community for Christian Meditation.
He has conducted dialogues and peace initiatives such as the historic Way of Peace with the Dalai Lama and is active in inter-religious dialogue with other faiths as well as in encouraging the teaching of Christian meditation to children and students and in the re-appropriation of the contemplative wisdom tradition in the Church and society at large. He lives at the international centre of the WCCM, at Bonnevaux in France.
Music Credits: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions
Jean Vanier explained how people grow and discover the beauty of their being. The biggest revolution a human being can experience is imititating God by remaining silent and listening, by being present.
Jean Vanier was a philosopher, writer, religious and moral leader and the founder of two major international community-based organizations, L’Arche and Faith and Light, that exist for people with intellectual disabilities.
https://jean-vanier.org/en/meet-jean/introduction
Music Credits: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions