Contemplative Revolution

This talk is part of the course the Eight Big Problems of Life available on wccm.orgIn 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.Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.  

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 hereAbout Herman Van RompuyHerman 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. Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License. 

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.  Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License. 

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.  Soundtrack: Aourourou by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.