Kardia Formation

Strengthening Spirit – Releasing Potential

Poetry and Prayer with Pádraig O Tuama

Irish poet and theologian, Pádraig Ó Tuama, will return via zoom in a series of evenings in March 2024.

Tuesday 5-Mar-2024 7 pm – 9 pm.  Padraig O'Touma
Thursday 7th March 2024 7 pm – 9 pm
Thursday 14-Mar-2024 7 pm – 9 pm

Timezone. (UTC+11:00) Australia/Victoria

The series will be hosted by Heart of Life Centre for Spiritual & Pastoral Formation, Kardia Formation, Living Well Centre and Wellspring Centre.

This is an online series. Come to one or all.

Session 1 – Tue 5 Mar, 7pm–9pm – ‘The Vernacular of Human Experience’,
We all tell stories: about what happened at work; on the train to work; in the shop; on the phone. This workshop will explore stories as a container of multiple meanings, replete with literary riches, even in the everyday of simple and ordinary language.

photo credit: David Pugh

Session 2 – Thu 7 Mar, 7pm–9pm – ‘Lord Help Me; The Ocean is So Big and My Boat is So Small’;
What are the forms that can help us? A raft? A little boat? Something to help you breathe? Something to help others? Yes to all, and more. This session will explore forms — collect, blessing, creed — that contain aspects of the human condition that are looking for shape and ritual.

Session 3 – Thu 14 Mar, 7pm–9pm – ‘To Whom is Prayer Addressed?’, will explore the “you” of prayer and poetry.
To whom is prayer addressed? This session will explore the “you” of prayer and poetry, a simple word that can contain multitudes: desire, yearning, accusation, doubt, knowledge and agnosticism. This word “you” — one of the most used in everyday English language — imagines an interlocutor who listens, attends and comprehends, whether they reply or not. By examining the “you” of prayer, we will consider what conversation unlocks in a person’s language.

The cost for this series is $225 or $80 per session. We invite you to pay what you can. We hope that those who can pay the full amount will pay a little extra to help cover the cost for those who can’t.

Booking here

Contact us for more information

Pádraig Ó Tuama is the host of On Being’s Poetry Unbound and the author of Poetry Unbound; 50 Poems to Open Your Life. He is a poet with interests in language, violence, power and religion. Feed the Beast is his most recent collection with Kitchen Hymns, a volume of original poems, and an essayed poetry anthology Poetry Unbound; Poems on Being with Each Other both forthcoming in 2024.