The John Main Seminar

The John Main Seminar is an annual event led by a presenter of global stature that brings together Christian meditators into dialogue with other groups and communities.

The next John Main Seminar, in 2011, will be led by Timothy Radcliffe OP and hosted by the Irish Christian Meditation Community in Cork city. Visit the link below:

2011 - "ALIVE IN CHRIST" led by Timothy Radcliffe OP in Cork, Ireland
11-14 August 2011 | University College Cork, Ireland

 

2010 - “The Shape of God’s Affection” led by James Alison
August 5th to 8th, 2010 - University of Kent, Canterbury, England

Photo: At the closing Eucharist of the 2010 John Main Seminar, in Canterbury, led by James Alison, representatives from many of the countries in the community received a candle to take home to their national community. In his talks James spoke of the essential mysteries of the Christian faith. Following the theme of Creation, death and resurrection and Eucharist he powerfully refreshed and reinvigorated for many the familiar symbols and texts. He spoke of God moving into the human condition without displacing us - powerful but not creating rivalry - and of Jesus as radically occupying the place of shame in order to reverse our usual, flawed way of seeing things.

View a slide show of the Seminar here.

"You just sit still and it is in that stillness that you gain the wisdom to see that you can only be yourself, you can only become yourself if you are willing to lose yourself. The truth that we discover is this that we can only find ourselves in the other. Self-analysis will not reveal to you who you are. But if you take the focus of attention off yourself and project it forward then you discover the other and in discovering the other, you will discover yourself. The other we call God, Wisdom, Being, Love. The name is not important. In the silence of meditation we go beyond all words, to the Reality." (John Main)

John Main Seminars 1984 to 2009...

 

Download HERE the John Main Seminar Notes PDF.

 

2009 - "When God Disappears" led by Robert Kennedy, SJ
28 - 30 August / London, England

2008 - "Unity: Local and Global"
August, 14-17 | Mainz, Germany led by Cardinal Walter Kasper

2007 - “Still Present: The Life and Legacy of John Main”
“Le Rayonnement de l’Enseignement de John Main”
- Speakers included Laurence Freeman, Balfour Mount, Sarah Bachelard, Peter Ng and Yvon Théroux.

2006 - Margaret Rizza
- The Fire of Silence Through Music and Mystics

2005 - Richard Rohr OFM
- "A Lever and a Place to Stand"

2004 - Joan Chittister OSB
- "Heart of Flesh: A Feminist Spirituality for Women and Men"

2003 - Speakers Panel on Bede Griffiths OSB
- Andrew Harvey, Shirley Du Boulay and Bruno Barnhardt OSB Cam. on Bede Griffiths OSB

2002 - Bishop Kallistos Ware
- "The Kingdom of the Heart: The Jesus Prayer in our Daliy Life"

2001 - Archbishop Rowan Williams
- "Spirit in the Desert"

2000 - The Dalai Lama & Previous Presenters
- "The Way of Peace"

1999 - Huston Smith
- "Return to the Light"

1998 - Thomas Keating
- "Heart of the World"

1997 - Mary McAleese
- "Reconciled Being"

1996 - Raimon Panikkar
- "The Silence of Life"

1995 - Laurence Freeman
- "On Jesus"

1994 - The Dalai Lama
- "The Good Heart"

1993 - William Johnston
- "The New Christian Mysticism"

1992 - Jean Vanier
- "From Brokenness to Wholeness"

1991 - Bede Griffiths
- "Christian Meditation: An Evolving Tradition"

1990 - Eileen O'Hea
- "Spirit and Psyche"

1989 - Balfour Mount
- "On Wholeness"

1988 - Charles Taylor
- "Christian Identity and Modernity"

1987 - Derek Smith
- "On Reading"

1986 - John Todd
- "The New Church"

1985 - Robert Kiely
- "The Search for God in Modern Literature"

1984 - Isabelle Glover
- "Indian Scriptures as Christian Reading"