Inspiration
The papal environmental  encyclical, Laudato Si: On Care for our Common Home, takes its title (which means "be praised") from  St Francis’ beautiful  Canticle of the Creatures. The full text of the Canticle is beautifully read and illustrated in this video by Paolo Maggioni Conte.  
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Weekly contemplative reflections by Daniel O’Leary, Episcopal Vicar for Christian Formation in Leeds, aimed at introducing the orthodox Catholic tradition known as the sacramental imagination.
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Christian Meditation Ireland (CMI)  is part of The World Community for Christian Meditation, which continues the work initiated 40 years ago by the Benedictine monk, John Main, in renewing and sharing the ancient path of contemplative prayer.This ecunemical movement - the "monastery without walls" - is today present in 114 countries, with 100,000 people in 2,000 meditation groups meeting weekly. The CMI website offers rich resources for individual and group meditation, and will also help you find an Irish meditation group near you.
On Being is a Peabody Award-winning public radio conversation and podcast, a Webby Award-winning website and online exploration, a publisher and public event convener. On Being opens up the animating questions at the center of human life: What does it mean to be human, and how do we want to live? We explore these questions in their richness and complexity in 21st-century lives and endeavors. We pursue wisdom and moral imagination as much as knowledge; we esteem nuance and poetry as much as fact.
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Resources for those interested in pursuing a Benedictine way of living in ordinary life.
Today is my Gift to You is an inspirational Irish website, with a daily spiritual reflection accompanied by an uplifting image.
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Contemplative Outreach provides an introduction to the practice of “centering prayer”, a receptive method of silent prayer developed by the Trappist monk, Thomas Keating.
This site aims to make "spiritual tools" available to those seeking to deepen their spiritual lives by giving orientations for growth in personal prayer and in understanding the spiritual journey.
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Aspects of the Spiritual Life

“Layer upon layer keeps uncovering, isn’t it amazing what meditation enables? It’s limitless, all these beginnings...I have been given the kingdom of heaven, yes, but to be led to understand that this is the kingdom of eternal forgiveness is astonishing!” These words are from one of the last letters of the late David Wood, Anglican priest and ambassador for Christian meditation. Listen here to his engaging and deeply human talks.
 “Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day.”  The spirit of renowned psychologist and theologian, Henri Nouwen, lives on in the work of the Henri Nouwen Society, and in all who live the spiritual values of communion, community and ministry, to which he dedicated his life. The site also features an inspiring daily meditation.
"Meditations from Carmel" offers short podcast meditations from the writings of the great Carmelite Saints, including St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Therese of Lisieux, and many others.
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Saint Ignatius believed that God could speak to us just as clearly in our imagination as through our thoughts and our memories. Contemplation isn't about trying to place yourself in a historic setting, like dreaming you were back in the Middle Ages, it's about trying to encounter Jesus in a personal and unique way. Some excellent imaginative contemplation exercises provided by the English Jesuits can be accessed here.
Inspirational poems from writers as diverse as  Teresa of Avila, GK Chesterton, John Donne, Seamus Heaney, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Mary Oliver, and many more.
"Gratefulness" is a website initiated by Brother David, a Benedictine monk, offering online educational programs and practices which inspire and guide a commitment to saying “yes” to a wholehearted life.
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Richard Rohr offers daily meditations to awaken us to God’s loving presence in all things. Drawing from the Christian scriptures and tradition as well as teachers from other religions, Fr. Richard reframes neglected or misunderstood teachings to reveal our true self in God.
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Extensive archive of columns by author and journalist Dr Ron Rolheiser, president of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas. His popular weekly column is carried by almost 100 newspapers worldwide.
Inspiring short podcasts and videos on liturgical readings by the Irish Salesians.
Denis McBride, Director of Redemptorist Publications, offers reflections aimed at opening a conversation between the drama of people's lives and the four great narratives of Christian beginning.
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For Trappist monk Thomas Merton, the “deeply spiritual life” meant the “experience” of God’s presence and love at all times, combining that with action in everyday life. This PBS programme provides an introduction to Merton.