The John Main Center
for Meditation and Interreligious Dialogue
at Georgetown University


Our Mission

The John Main Center offers a contemplative sacred space in the heart of the Georgetown University campus. Through regular meditation sessions and special events, offered in a spirit of friendship and openness to all, the John Main Center shares the gift of the contemplative path with the Georgetown Community and beyond.

Contemplatives in Action Our Response to Racism and Racial Injustice

Now a full and active component of Campus Ministry, the John Main Center seeks to become more deeply engaged in the spiritual and intellectual life of Georgetown—offering a comprehensive, campus-wide approach to the teaching and practice of meditation that is consistent with its Jesuit identity and Ignatian values.

In light of the signs of these unprecedented times and in order to uphold the Jesuit value of being "Contemplatives in Action", the JMC wants to share Campus Ministry's Response to Racism and Racial Injustice.

Spring 2023 at the JMC!

What We Do

Meditation Integration


All about Meditation Integration

Contemplative Practice


All about Meditation Integration

Interfaith Dialogue


All about Meditation Integration

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A meditation, yoga, contemplative eucharist and
personal mentoring retreat for young adults

Last year we held a very diverse enriching retreat for young adults (ages 18-40) from different parts of the world. This year we do it again, but it will have to be online. It will still be centred in Bonnevaux where participants will feel connected through a creative use of technology to address some of the most pressing questions of our troubling times:

- Where to find happiness in an authentic way.

- How to make meditation part of your life.

- How to feel supported in a community you can believe in and that believes in you.

- How to deal with your personal issues with spiritual friendship and skilled counselling.

We also have suggestions for you (see here) to construct a daily retreat framework that suits your current situation while using the essential elements originating from Bonnevaux.

2020 Summer Schedule

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For a New Beginning 

In out-of-the-way places of the heart, 
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming, 
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

John O'Donohue
To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

 

Blessed Spring Semester 2023!
 
Blessings to all our Hoyas observing Holy Days and celebrations in Spring! 
 
Please join us in May for
 
Wellness Wednesday: Grad Student Sunset Savasana Yoga Break
Wednesday, May 3rd at 6:30pm
Location TBD
 
Calling all Grad Students: Join us on Wednesday, May 3rd a for a break from the stress and clamor of finals with a relaxing and restorative Savasana yoga session. Following the event, we will offer a light picnic dinner while watching the sun set.
Hope to see you there- no experience needed and all are welcome!
 
Please RSVP before Sunday, April 30th! 

 


Please note that attendance at the JMC will continue to be opened only to current Georgetown students, faculty and staff.

Current Health Protocols will be followed, including:
At the John Main Center at Georgetown University - Masking is Optional but Welcome.
Please no food or drink allowed.
Sign-In required each time upon arrival for all personal and hosted meditation sessions. 

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Where is the JMC?

The JMC is located in Anne Marie Becraft Hall on the Main Campus near Dahlgren Quad across from New South at the corner of Old North Way and Library Walk.

We warmly welcome you all to enter into this present moment together in this new way of proceeding.

The door is open for you...  Maranatha!

Sending you Peace in it all, 

Lisa and the JMC Leadership Teams

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New JMC Leadership Team 2022-2023
with JMC Alumni Leaders

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JMC 12:30pm 2020-2022
Virtual Meditation

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Spring Semester Meditation Sessions

January - April 2023

For Upcoming JMC Offerings: jmc.georgetown.edu or @johnmaincenter 
For Zoom Links Contact the JMC at meditationcenter@georgetown.edu

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Good Morning Meditation

Monday - Friday
8:30 - 9:00 a.m. 

Come to the JMC
Anne Marie Becraft Hall

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Midday Meditation

VIRTUAL
Monday - Friday
12:30 - 1:00 p.m. 
Request Zoom

IN-PERSON
Monday (NEW!)
12:30 - 1:00 p.m.
(separate from but synchronous with the virtual session)

HYBRID
Thursday

12:30 - 1:00 p.m.
Request Zoom

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Evening Meditation

Monday & Wednesday
6:00 - 6:30 p.m.

Come to the JMC
Anne Marie Becraft Hall 
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Late Night Meditation

Monday - Wednesday
9:00-9:30 p.m.

Come to the JMC
Anne Marie Becraft Hall or Request Zoom

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Walk-Ins Welcome for Personal Meditation/Contemplation
(All Hoyas Welcome)

Monday - Friday
7:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.

photo by Pedro Ramos

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JMC-MSB Meditation

TBD

with
Adi Patro (MBA '23)

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Alumni Meditation
VIRTUAL

TBD

 

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Spring Opportunities to Come!

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Contemplative Photography: Dialogue & Dessert:
Visio Divina: the Art of Seeing the Sacred in All Things

Tuesday, April 18
7:30 p.m.
Ecumenical Chapel - Issac Hawkins Hall

with Fr. Greg Schenden, S.J. - Director of Campus Ministry and
Rev. Dr. Shazetta Thompson-Hill - Program Director for Residential Ministry
featuring their Photographic Art. 
 
Come for an engaging night of photographic artistry and one-on-one conversation between our amazing Director of Campus Ministry, Fr. Greg Schenden, S.J. and Program Director for Residential Ministry, Dr. Shazetta Thompson-Hill, as they reflect upon what inspires their creative process of photography as well as how it grounds their spiritual lives and understanding of humanity and all of creation.
Enjoy Baked & Wired desserts following!
 
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An Earth Day Meditation: Nature & Contemplative Photography

Saturday, April 22
1:00 p.m.
Meet at JMC and walk to the Park behind Observatory

Enjoy a unique Earth Day Meditation in nature with a guided contemplative photography experience. Bring your camera or smartphone. No experience needed and All are Welcome!
 
Questions?
Contact our new JMC Christian Contemplative Team:
Kenzie Knight: JMC Christian Contemplative Fellow,
Harper Cartwright, Denny O. and Maria Victoria Almeida Vazquez
sponsored by the

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Meet our JMC Fellow for Christian Contemplation 2022-2023

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My name is Kenzie Knight. I am the John Main Center for Meditation and Interreligious Dialogue’s first ever JMC Fellow for Christian Contemplation for 2022-2023.

As a John Main Center (JMC) student leader in addition to my previous role as one of the student coordinators for the Catholic Faith Communities (CFC), I was selected for this inaugural fellowship role which is generously sponsored by the Trust for the Meditation Process whose aim is to “renew contemplative Christianity, promote health and wholeness, and bring silence and stillness to a hectic world.”

During the Fall semester, I studied abroad as a senior majoring in Biology of Global Health at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland and explored ways of integrating the practice of meditation and contemplation with my vocational aspirations.

This fellowship experience also offers me the opportunity to grow in the formation and practice of contemplation in the Christian tradition and I look forward to sharing various forms of Christian contemplation and meditation with fellow Hoyas in the Spring semester.

My meditation experience began as a nervous first year student at Georgetown University. Feeling overwhelmed, I would find myself at the John Main Center for Meditation & Dialogue (JMC) seeking silence, simplicity, and stillness. At first, meditation was an escape from the hecticness of college. I was looking for a moment of rest in the midst of such a huge transition. What I did not realize at the time was the invitation to which God was calling me. 

Through my experience at the center and exploration of the teachings of John Main, Laurence Freeman, and many others, I learned that meditation is a call to prayer and to find rest in God. Meditation can be summarized for me in the phrase “mutual gazing,” as Fr. Martin Laird, O.S.A. beautifully expressed– reflecting the meeting between God and me. 

I have deepened my practice this fall as the JMC Fellow for Christian Contemplation for 2022-2023, which is generously sponsored by the Trust for the Meditation Process. My biggest observation has been the nonlinear nature of the practice. That is, I have noticed sometimes distractions are constant and at other times I can be attuned to God's presence so clearly. I sometimes experience both on the same day! 

I discovered that I have brought expectations of a perfect practice to meditation. I assumed my meditation practice would be a linear progress with distractions becoming less and less as I meditated more. But this has not been the case. I have noticed distractions are frequent still after years of practice. And I am learning to be okay with that -- that God is not asking me to be perfect but just to simply be. 

Even still, this nonlinearity can be frustrating and disheartening at times. So, I am learning how to sit with this frustration and my distractions in meditation, welcoming them as guests and not intruders, because accepting the presence of these feelings is as much a part of the process of the practice as finding stillness is. I remind myself of the words of Jesus: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” The invitation of meditation is to find rest in the restlessness, to embrace the difficult nature of letting go. It is not about perfecting the practice but a way to be with the messiness of life. It is about reorienting the way we think about our relationship to God, ourselves, and others. 

Meditation is simply the invitation to meet God within us and recenter on that love – to sit in mutual gazing. No matter how the practice unfolds, God and you are there – and that is all that matters in the present moment. 

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WCCM Meditation Offerings

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Sunday Meditation
with Dr. Gene Bebeau

7:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Request Zoom Link

Thursday Meditation
with Prof. Dennis McAuliffe

6:15 - 7:15 p.m.
Request Zoom Link

For more information, visit wccm.org

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Remembering the Remarkable Legacy of Anne Marie Becraft 

Our JMC Leaders Celebrate Anne Marie Becraft!
https://www.instagram.com/johnmaincenter
@johnmaincenter

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I stumbled across the Anne Marie Becraft Hall while on campus recently and it gave me joy. The space, virtually and physically reminds me of the places where I felt safe, grounded and in community with those around me. My undergraduate experience at a women's college granted me several opportunities to dig deeper within and find my true self. Joining the online weekly meditation sessions with the John Main Center, connects me to my true self in similar, newer ways, while also connecting me with Georgetown students, faculty, staff and community members. I appreciate the fact that there is a designated space to the legacy of Anne Marie Becraft, particularly because she is remembered for establishing an academy for Black girls and I'm a Black girl/woman at this institution. This space reminds me that my Blackness & woman-ness belong here at Georgetown and it is precious to me for this reason.

Michaella Mentu
Master's in Management '21
Georgetown University MSB

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The Meditation House (as I called it) was my favorite place on campus, well before I knew its history or that the university was considering changing its name. The building was once named after a former Georgetown leader who was involved in the sale of 272 enslaved people. To have the place where folks are invited to communally meditate and reflect be named after a Black woman, a woman of service through education, is inspiring. Anne Marie Becraft accomplished so much before passing at 28; I, at 29, hope to create positive, lasting change through my work as well. The space [JMC - my addition] feels more inviting and is somewhere I went (pre-COVID) to bask in the energy of someone like Anne Marie Becraft as a Black woman who serves through education.

Jaime Brown
Associate Director,
Center for Student Engagement
MBA '23
Georgetown University MSB

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Media Archives


PAST EVENT:

Way of Peace Seminar: On Spirituality in the Secular Age with His Holiness the Dali Llama



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"For three years, I resisted going into John Main Center because the idea of meditating and being in silence for more than 2 minutes was the most daunting of concepts. However, my curiosity got antsy and propelled me to try what the media crowned the newest wellness fad– meditation. Over the course of my senior year, I not only was able to discover and deepen my meditation practice but I also became part of such a special community. The center pulls together people from all corners of campus and the world to come together with the common interest of meditation. A simple and profound connection proved to build a foundation for a community so welcoming and loving. So, while it once used to be just that tiny building across from New South, now the John Main Center serves as both an oasis and a home. "Katherine Altman C'19

"The John Main Center has been instrumental for the wholeness of my Georgetown experience. Not only has it become a space of peace and calm but also it has helped me grow spiritually and emotionally. I feel like having the Meditation Center on campus can be a great addition to any student -- whatever it is the faith tradition that he or she comes from. Being part of the JMC is an opportunity to each day enhance our lives personally, spiritually, physically, and academically."Gabriel Donato Gonçalves C'19

Why donate

Your financial to contribution to the John Main Center helps us offer the transformative practice of meditation to the Georgetown community and beyond.

 

Partners

We are grateful for the support of the following:

The Meditatio Foundation

Donate to the John Main Center


Please consider giving to the John Main Center. Your financial contribution helps us offer the transformative practice of meditation to the Georgetown community and beyond.