Fr. Laurence Freeman OSB is currently the worldwide leader of the World Community for Christian Meditation.  He was born in England in 1951 where he was educated by the Benedictines and studied English Literature at New College, Oxford University. Before entering monastic life, he had experience with the United Nations in New York, banking and journalism.

In the monastery, his spiritual teacher was Fr. John Main. He helped Fr. John establish the first Christian Meditation Centre in London. At the invitation of the Archbishop of Montreal, in 1977, he accompanied Fr. John to establish a Benedictine community of monks and laypeople dedicated to the practice and teaching of Christian meditation. Fr. Laurence studied theology at the Universite de Montreal and at McGill University. He made his solemn monastic profession in 1979 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1980.  After the death of John Main in 1982, he continued the work of teaching meditation that had already begun, and to develop a global community.

 In 1991, Fr Laurence returned to England to establish the International Centre of the World Community for Christian Meditation, with groups now present in more than a hundred countries and which has become a ‘monastery without walls’, as Fr. John envisioned it.  As Director,  he travels and teaches widely, and is the author of a number of books, among others: Jesus the Teacher Within,  Light Within, A Short Span of Days and The Selfless Self.