Abbot Patrick Hederman and Fr Timothy Radcliffe OSB John Main Seminar in 2011 Cork, Ireland

I found these by chance when looking for something totally different. 
Serendipity eh ? 
 
I hope you find them useful.

The John Main Seminar is a major event hosted annually in different countries. 

This year it was led by the English Dominican Timothy Radcliffe and hosted by the Irish Christian Meditation Community in Cork, Ireland. 

Fr Timothy gave the first of the Seminar's talks on the theme of Love and the crisis of leadership in the church and here gives a brief but very good summary.

The next video is a Homily given by Abbot of Glenstal Abbey, Patrick Hederman OSB
on prayer . 

I love this quote of his on different approaches to prayer:

"Everyone to their own favourite tube station .....

It doesn't really matter which entry point you use as long as it leads you to the underground."

Wonderful. I could listen to this man all day, just for his lilting accent that reminds me of home. I have posted on him elsewhere in my blog and have two of his books - they both challenge and inspire me.

Fr. Radcliffe's talks in Cork don't seem to be available on You Tube but I have found these brief but pithy ones on the themes of Faith, Hope and Love and for good measure a bonus one on Pilgrimage . They are each only a couple of minutes long...

His introduction is from BlackFriars Oxford 

This one is on Faith

Now Hope

 Then Love

Finally Pilgrimage

A Young Participant speaks about how meditation brought him back to his faith at the seminar in Cork this summer. (Not brilliant sound quality but good content.)

Music group play at John Main Seminar( again, not that high a quality)

The John Main Seminar of Fall 2009 series of videos featuring the brilliant Fr. Laurence Freeman, O.S.B., founder of the John Main Center at Georgetown University, Washington, here speaks "On The Upside of Down." with a very light touch !!

This is the first  one of 8 that can all be found from this one link on You Tube.

A Bit of a Filum' makes a bit of a splash...

A documentary shot in Dingle last year about the making of the film Ryan's Daughter in the late 1960s and early 1970s has been shortlisted in the prestigious, Rose d'Or Film Festival, held in Lucerne, Switzerland.
The documentary made by RTE is entitled A Bit of a Filum and features a number of local faces from Dingle and West Kerry.Ryan's Daughter is David Lean's 1970 film which is set in 1916 and tells the story of an Irish girl who has an affair with a British officer during World War I, despite opposition from her nationalist neighbours. The film stars Robert Mitchum, Sarah Miles, (pictured above right) John Mills, Christopher Jones, Trevor Howard and Leo McKern, with a score by Maurice Jarre. It won two Oscars.
The title of this blog is derived from a remark made by the late Pat Baker (Goat's Street Dingle) who worked in the Wood Mill at the time of the making of the movie; remarking one day to his colleague Tom Fitzgerald that some people who had been purchasing wood were in the process of making 'a bit of a filum'!.

Dingle Peninsula County Kerry

Thinking of Dingle in South West Ireland today. I love the place. I was born In Ennis County Clare , a bit further up the coast. I spent six weeks camping in Dingle when I was in my twenties and fell in love with it then. Most of the film Ryan's Daughter was filmed around these parts. I almost bought an old cottage with a wind generator and three acres of land. It is more touristy now but I would love to go back there with my partner Colin one day.....maybe we can find the cottage.

Pauline Scanlon and Eilibhis Ni Chinneide performing in John Benny's Pub, Dingle.

Fungi/Funghi is a wild dolphin living in Dingle Bay, Ireland. You can get a boat ride out to swim with him.

The beehive huts on the Dingle peninsula on the Western coast of Ireland were early Christian monastic hermitages where people escaped the dangers of the material world to contemplate the spiritual one.

I am sure that the empty housing developments all around this Western area are now available cheap for any one who wishes to do the same. Perhaps the next G20 meeting should be held here.

The Gallarus Oratory on the Dingle peninsula at the top of the picture is a little chapel barely big enough to hold twelve people.
1,400 years ago small communities of monks gathered for the reading of the Gospel. It is the only Oratory that has remained in perfect condition and has needed no restoration.