Former banker’s‘festival of silence’ to soothe the spirit
Benedictine monk, Fr Laurence Freeman, the head of the World Community for Christian Meditation, will lead meditation workshops on his spiritual home of Bere Island as part of its first-ever Festival of Music and Silence later this month.
One of the few positive outcomes of the economic crash is that people are rediscovering the real values in life, Fr Laurence claims.
“Irish people are more a-tuned to this language of the spirit and they are turning back to a more spiritual side of life,” he said.
“That is not to under-estimate the suffering of the crash. I am well aware of that in a rural community like this part of West Cork where jobs dried up and people left. But people have said that the bursting of the property bubble has brought us back to reality and to what happiness really means, and what should be the true values by which we should lead our lives.
“Meditation is, in essence, the leaving of your thoughts to one-side and is at the heart of all great spiritual wisdom traditions,” he said.
Research has shown it can help lower blood pressure and cholesterol, reduce stress and anxiety, combat depression, and provide better sleep, resulting in a general feeling of physical and psychological well-being.
Fr Laurence’s mother, Anne Sullivan, of the Seir branch of the clan, was born on Bere Island. She moved to London where Laurence was born in 1951.
Educated by the Benedictines, he studied English Literature at Oxford University. He had experience with the United Nations, in international banking and journalism, before turning to God.
He studied theology at the Universite de Montreal and at McGill University, made his solemn monastic profession in 1979 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1980.
As director of The World Community for Christian Meditation, which counts Sean Hagan, the general counsel and director of the legal department at the International Monetary Fund among its guiding board, he now leads and is helping to develop a global community of Christian meditation which has a presence in more than 100 countries.
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.
He teaches meditation to business and financial students at Georgetown University Business School in the US, to trainee physicians at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in Dublin, and has helped introduce the practice of meditation into more than 70 Irish schools.
Fr Laurence is really looking forward to the festival. “Bere Island seems to be suitable place for the teaching and practice of meditation,” he said.
“All ages and backgrounds, respond to the beauty of the place, and the hospitality of the people.
“And it is a good way of using the island and helping it materially too.”
Bere Island’s first festival of music and silence takes place from August 28 to 31.
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