Talks

The Campion Lecture 2023

May 4, 2023

T. S. Eliot, Terrible Celibate: Suffering and Sexuality in the Letters to Emily Hale

Speaker: Dr Jayme Stayer, Prof of English at Loyola University Chicago

Date: Thursday 4th May 2023

Time: 17:30

Venue: Campion Hall Library (and livestream)

About: In January 2020, T. S. Eliot’s love letters to Emily Hale were finally made available by the Princeton archive, after a strict embargo stretching back to the 1950s. Three years later, in January 2023, the letters that have aroused such intense speculation have been published, and thanks to the generosity of the Eliot estate, they are available for free online. The archive consists of more than a thousand letters, written over decades to a woman Eliot loved but could not marry—until, suddenly, too late, he could marry but didn’t. Intimate, poignant, and occasionally enraging, the letters contain revelations large and small, challenging modernist scholars to rethink what has been known or assumed about the poet’s life and work. Prof Stayer's talk will draw on these letters, as well as on his own archival work in the Bodleian and the Eliot Foundation, to illuminate the poet's evolving ideas about suffering, sexuality, divorce—all of it informed by his conversion to the Church of England and his fierce commitment to Christian principles.

Register for the event here.

Photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash

More

Talks

Life before Death: The Psychology of Flourishing

Friday 4th (arrive late afternoon) – Sunday 6th July 2025 (depart after lunch)

During this weekend Father Roger Dawson SJ will introduce and explain this approach to flourishing as life before death and he will make the link with our faith and Ignatian spirituality.

'Be still and know that I am God’: Exploring Mindfulness, Psychology and the Christian life

Thursday 14th (arrivals late afternoon) – Sunday 17th August 2025 (depart after lunch)

This weekend explores the human condition through your own life story, in the context of the Gospel story and the Christian spiritual life, using mindfulness skills and contemplative Christian prayer.

'We want to be a Synodal Church' - a reflective retreat at St Beuno's Jesuit Spirituality Centre

Friday 19th - Sunday 21st September 2025

The team at St Beuno's have created this retreat for participants to reflect on Pope Leo XIV's statement: "We want to be a synodal church, walking and always seeking peace, charity, closeness, especially to those who are suffering."

No items found.
No items found.

Spiritual Conversation Course

1st - 10th August 2025

This residential course includes listening skills, discernment of spirits, a model of Ignatian spiritual conversation and accompaniment, and ways of praying. The course will help deepen and improve one-to-one pastoral ministry, using Ignatian principles based on the Spiritual Exercises.

Read more
No items found.
No items found.
No items found.