iTunes Podcasts

We have many sets of Christian meditation podcasts listed on iTunes. If you already have the iTunes software installed on your computer you may subscribe to the podcasts directly by using the links below. When you subscribe, you may also "Tell a Friend" by clicking on the appropriate link. Alternately, iTunes users can subscribe to them by following the usual path at the iTunes store > podcasts > power search > description > Christian meditation -- and then choosing the series they want to subscribe to. While subscriptions are without cost, each title description encourages subscribers to make a contribution to the WCCM to support its work and tells how to get other meditation resources at our online Book Store. Information about "Levels of Giving" here.

	THE TRADITION OF MEDITATION for a Time of Crisis Laurence Freeman OSB A series of talks on the tradition and practice of Christian meditation by Laurence Freeman (More information at www.WCCM.org). Every time we sit to meditate, John Main says, we are entering a tradition. We can validly meditate outside of any spiritual tradition but, as Laurence Freeman says, it will always lead us back home where we belong: the heart. Prayer today has become very cut off from the heart and this, he says, is the crisis of religion in our time. The meaning of meditation in the tradition of the Desert Fathers is prayer, and prayer in this tradition is the prayer of the heart or continuous prayer: "stable tranquility and permanent purity of mind". That is the goal and the path we tread in meditation, bringing to life an ancient wisdom in the midst of our modern crisis. We need to understand this tradition to be fully open to its transforming influence in our own lives, and to be able to hand it on to satisfy the spiritual hunger of our time".
	Communitas One John Main OSB One of the most valuable legacies of John Main's teaching on Christian meditation is this series of talks. Each series of podcasts offer introductory talks suitable for absolute beginners or for people or groups relatively new to meditation -- or indeed, for anyone who understands that we are always beginners. Also here are talks given to people continuing to meditate and trying to integrate two daily half-hour periods into their everyday life. The Communitas talks nourish a worldwide community of meditators (www.WCCM.org). Meditation groups meeting weekly in homes, parishes, offices, prisons, colleges and communities find that listening to one of these talks at the beginning of a meeting prepares them for meditation in a profoundly simple and effective way.
	Dwelling in Love Frans De Ridder CICM A series of talks on the tradition and practice of Christian meditation by Father Frans De Ridder cicm (www.WCCM.org). Frans De Ridder cicm is a missionary of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. After 15 years in Taiwan, he was transferred to Singapore in 1981. Since then, he has been involved with the Marriage Encounter, Engaged Encounter, and Choice programmes. Fr Frans travels in Asia regularly to conduct retreats for priests, religious sisters, and lay people. From January 2010 he will be based in Taiwan as provincial superior of CICM missionaries in the region. In this series of podcasts he shares with refreshing simplicity his experience of the fruits of meditation in his life as a priest. He explains how meditation can bring the contemplative, mystical dimension to marriage spirituality, and how it can enrich our experience of daily living. Interview with Laurence Freeman OSB in Singapore, January 2008 and Talk to group leaders and meditators in Singapore, August 20009.
	In Times of Anxiety: Talks to Groups in Montreal John Main OSB This selection of talks addresses the human predicament in a time of economic crisis. In Fr John's words: So many men and women are discovering that their spirit is stifled. Meditation is the way of making contact with our own spirit, and in that contact finding everything in our experience coming into harmony, judged and aligned on God. The stresses, the challenges, all remain, but they are powerless to defeat us. We learn in our stillness in God that in him we have all things that are necessary.
	Spirituality in a Secular Age: The Hunger for Depth and Meaning Laurence Freeman OSB In these talks Fr Laurence addresses the spiritual anguish of the modern Christian in a landscape where institutional religion is often held in suspicion or even rejected. How do we live a meaningful life at personal depth? And how do we relate it to our faith? Fr Laurence points us to "the one thing necessary" that Jesus calls us to, as he called Martha to: to put being before doing. It is true to the way we are made, he explains, as he illustrates how meditation offers more than what the secular approach often presents -- not just self-help but transcendence in love: a way to live and to experience truth.
	Rain for the Sea Eileen O'Hea Eileen O'Hea was a Sister of St. Joseph of Brentwood, New York. As a teacher of the community, she led the John Main Seminar in 1990, gave many meditation retreats, and was a major inspirational force in the setting up of the "School". She died on 3 February 2005 in Minneapolis. These talks draw on images and ideas from Scripture, the Christian contemplative tradition, and daily prayer experience, and lead you inward in preparation for meditation.
	The Contemplative Executive Peter Ng Peter Ng is Chief Investment Officer at the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation. He is the WCCM National Coordinator for Singapore, and also a Trustee and Guiding Board Member. Speaking from the experience of his own quest for "meaning, depth, significance, and purpose" in life, he 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. In this practice, the executive attends to the "business of businesses", which is to allow the work of God to be done in us. Talks 1 to 5 are extracts from Peter's presentations at the 2007 John Main Seminar. Talks 6 and 7 were given to student meditators of Georgetown University, USA, in March 2006.
	Christian Meditation: Aspects of the Spiritual Life David Wood David Wood is a retired Anglican priest. Most of his life, he lived and worked amongst declining industrial communities in Northern England organising and leading prayer workshops, retreats, and vigils of prayer, always exploring silence and solitude. When he met John Main in 1988, after searching wilderness years, he just knew he was 'Home'. With his wife Sheila he then started and developed the Christian Meditation Community in Cumbria. "These introductions to meditation," he writes, "are like aspects of the spiritual life and mystery I want to reveal more for myself, knowing that it is the same for many people I meet. We need to bring all things into our silence and let the silence work."
	The Ego: On Our Spiritual Journey II Laurence Freeman, OSB These talks offer fresh insight on the problem of the go and the role of ascetism. The ego is a great force in today's consumer society but, Fr Laurence says, there is a natural gravity in the human soul that draws it to towards God. This is the primary human will. The way to recover this primary will is ascetism, and the single word in meditation is a way of ascesis that strikes at the root of the ego. These talks were given to the monks of Gethsemani Abbey is 1992.
	The Ego: On Our Spiritual Journey I Laurence Freeman, OSB These talks offer fresh insight on the problem of the go and the role of ascetism. The ego is a great force in today's consumer society but, Fr Laurence says, there is a natural gravity in the human soul that draws it to towards God. This is the primary human will. The way to recover this primary will is ascetism, and the single word in meditation is a way of ascesis that strikes at the root of the ego. These talks were given to the monks of Gethsemani Abbey is 1992.
	Prayer in the 21st Century Laurence Freeman, OSB In these talks, Fr Laurence addresses the question facing the modern Christian: How do we remain in the Church and encounter the world today without despair or compromise? The answer Fr. Laurence says is in re-connecting with the wisdom of our tradition that will allow us to respind not with condemnation but with compassion. He explains how meditation offers a path to this wisdom.
	CHRISTIAN MEDITATION: "MEDITATIO TALKS" Laurence Freeman, OSB A special series of talks on the tradition and practice of Christian meditation by Father Laurence Freeman OSB, Father Gerry Pierse CSsR, and other teachers of The World Community for Christian Meditation (www.WCCM.org). These talks are ideal for listening to before the meditation period at weekly Christian meditation groups.
	THE HUNGER FOR DEPTH AND MEANING John Main, OSB John Main (1926-1982) has been acclaimed as one of the great spiritual teachers of the twentieth century. He became a Benedictine monk after diplomatic service in the Far East and then teaching law at Trinity College, Dublin. By his life and teaching, John Main has helped restore to Christianity its own tradition of meditation and enabled many to discover its transforming power for themselves. He founded an open Benedictine community in Montreal from which sprang The World Community for Christian Meditation, a worldwide spiritual family linked by the daily practice of meditation. "The Hunger for Depth and Meaning" podcasts are selected from a set of 10 CDs containing sixty-nine extracts from John Main's spoken teachings arranged thematically in eight sections. The talks offer a clear and comprehensive overview of the teaching on Christian prayer by a contemporary spiritual master. They retain the authority, simplicity and humour with which Fr John taught. The transcripts of these talks are published as a book under the same title. John Main's teaching addresses people in all walks of life who are struggling to find depth and meaning in their lives. "I know of no other teaching in this form that carries the spirit of the gospel, the living Word, so directly and purely straight into the heart. His voice varies over the years the tapes were made. In the early ones you hear the physical vigour and passion of his full teaching authority. In the talks recorded in his last months of life one hears his voice grow weaker. But there is a different kind of strength." Laurence Freeman, OSB.
	ESSENTIALS OF CHRISTIAN MEDITATION Laurence Freeman, OSB A series of talks on the tradition and practice of Christian meditation by Father Laurence Freeman OSB, Director of The World Community for Christian Meditation (www.WCCM.org) given at various meditation retreats around the world. These talks are ideal for listening to before the meditation period at weekly Christian meditation groups.
	EVERYDAY LIFE AND CHRISTIAN MEDITATION Gerry Pierse, CSsR Father Gerry Pierse follows the teaching of John Main on the teaching and practice of Christian meditation. This series of podcasts offer introductory talks suitable for absolute beginners or for people or groups relatively new to meditation -- or indeed, for anyone who understands that we are always beginners. Also here are talks given to people continuing to meditate and trying to integrate two daily half-hour periods into their everyday life. These "Everyday" talks help to nourish a worldwide community of meditators (www.WCCM.org). Meditation groups meeting weekly in homes, parishes, offices, prisons, colleges and communities find that listening to one of these talks at the beginning of a meeting prepares them for meditation in a profoundly simple and effective way.
	CHRISTIAN MEDITATION AND THE NEW CREATION IN CHRIST Bede Griffiths, OSB A special on-going series of talks given by Bede Griffiths, OSB. These talks explore the tradition of Christian meditation and relate it to the great Eastern traditions. Fr Bede shows how the inner journey can contribute to spiritual unity. These talks are drawn from Fr Bede's talks at the 1991 John Main Seminar. The complete set of 3 CD's is available from MedioMedia.org
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