Contemplative Revolution WCCM Podcast

"By understanding the nature of matter, matter is energy, we're beginning to be prepared for a major shift in the way we look at ourselves and the world. Meditation is at the heart of that shift of consciousness. Meditation reawakens that capacity to be truly amazed" Laurence Freeman. This is the first talk of the Monte Oliveto Retreat led by Laurence Freeman at Monte Oliveto Maggiore in Italy in 2021.

In this episode, Laurence Freeman identifies what we may feel about St. Paul. Is his complex personality so different from ours? In his historical context, we can get past our first reactions to some of the tough passages in his letters, showing us a tenderly passionate, earthily mystical individual wrestling with his destiny like a boddhisatva who loved Christ more than himself. This podcast is part of the first session from the online series Seeing What St Paul Saw held in 2022.

In this episode, Laurence Freeman reflects on the challenge of the attention deficit in the human mind. An especially acute problem of our time. Early Christian teachers saw the attention deficit as being akin to the meaning of ‘original sin’. Meditation does more than improve our capacity for attention, however. It expands our capacity for love. This podcast is part of the Levels of Consciousness and the Fruits of the Spirit series held in 2021.

Always deepening her insight into what ‘contemplative Christianity’ means and what the options for the church of the future are, Sarah Bachelard tackles the dilemma of modern discourse – how to be committed to a good cause without increasing polarisation, how to practise peace in a culture spoiling for a fight. This podcast is part of the WCCM online Speakers series held in 2021, including speakers such as Herman van Rompuy, Liz Watson, David Lorimer, Marco Schorlemmer and Kim Nataraja.

Tim is an oblate of the WCCM and works with a US federal agency which provides care for refugees and survivors of torture. In this talk he describes how meditation helps him – and those he trains to work with those who have suffered a trauma – to maintain the optimum level of compassion while taking the necessary care of themselves.

Sharing meditation directly with those survivors has also shown him that, however essential it is to provide psychological therapy, it has its limitations. There is another level of healing which requires a spiritual dimension. Valuable as may be the ‘relaxation response’ or the ‘therapeutic response’, the deepest healing response lies not outside but within ourselves.

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