Our summer courses are held on weekdays for a fortnight. These course offerings and descriptions are subject to change. All courses are held at the Benedictine Institute, 74 Castlebar Road, Ealing, London W5 2DD, UK

Block 1: 30 June – 11 July 2025, weekdays

L701 Liturgical Research Seminar (IL certificate course)

LA411 Beginning Latin ONLINE only (no exams – not for credit)

L711 Advanced Latin ONLINE only (no exams – not for credit)

St Bede Lecture in Liturgy: 5 July 2025

The annual St Bede Liturgy Lecture will be given by Rev. Dr Thomas O’Loughlin. The lecture is scheduled for Saturday 5 July 2025 at 2:30 pm, at Ealing Abbey, free of charge.

Block 2: 7 – 18 July 2025, weekdays

L702 Liturgy in the West: History and Context (IL certificate course)

Block 3: 14 – 25 July 2025, weekdays

L704 Liturgical Hermeneutics (IL certificate course)

L718 Liturgies of the Early Church (IL certificate elective)

L735 Liturgy and Cultures (IL certificate elective)

LA611 Intermediate Latin ONLINE only (no exams – not for credit)

Syriac Summer Term

St Ephrem Lecture in Syriac Studies

The annual St Ephrem Lecture in Syriac Studies will be given by Rev. Dr John Semaan LMO. The lecture is scheduled for Saturday 12 July 2025 at 2:30 pm, at Ealing Abbey, free of charge.

30 June – 25 July 2025, weekdays – not for credit

Syriac is taught weekdays for the first two or for all four weeks, for an hour and a half weekays.

SY411 Readings in Syriac (IL certificate elective)

Syriac Project publishing unedited Syriac manuscripts from the British Library

Biblical Hebrew Summer Term

28 July – 1 August 2025, weekdays – not for credit

BH411 Biblical Hebrew for Beginners (no exams – not for credit)

Latin Summer Term

30 June – 11 July 2025, weekdays – ONLINE only

LA411 Beginning Latin (no exams – not for credit)

L711 Advanced Latin (no exams – not for credit)

14 – 25 July 2025, weekdays – ONLINE only

LA611 Intermediate Latin (no exams – not for credit)

Hours of instruction for the Latin courses are yet to be determined.
We shall have a one week break between the online and in person Latin courses.

4 – 8 August 2025, weekdays – IN PERSON only

Learn to speak Latin, Latin taught in Latin as a living language.

LA551 Beginning Spoken Latin

Begining speakers of Latin have had no instruction in the Latin language, yet are ready to apply themselves to intensive study, or they already know Latin well and would like to develop a proficiency in speaking Latin from the beginning level.

LA551 Advanced Spoken Latin

Proficient speakers of Latin both know and speak Latin well.

11 – 22 August 2025, weekdays – IN PERSON only

Non residential participants may enrol for both weeks or for only the first week, 11 – 15 August 2025.

LA411 Beginning Latin (no exams – not for credit)

LA611 Intermediate Latin (no exams – not for credit)

L711 Advanced Latin (no exams – not for credit)

L711 Proficient Latin for Liturgists (same course as LA711, but L711 is offered for academic credit)

LA813 Reading Ovid, Metamorphoses (no exams – not for credit)

Course Descriptions

Each course runs Monday – Friday for two weeks for a total of ten daily sessions, unless noted. Most courses are scheduled for 3 hour sessions including a break.

Block 1: 30 June – 11 July 2025, weekdays

L701 Liturgical Research Seminar

(required for IL certificate)     KU Leuven 4 credits
Prof. Daniel McCarthy OSB

At the end of the course each student will be prepared to conduct their own Master’s level research in liturgy with skills in three areas:
1) gathering the essential body of information,
2) interpreting a liturgical event and
3) developing a coherent presentation.
Each student will research and present the history and theology of an agreed upon collect type prayer.

Three Hours including a break.

Fee: £300

A fuller description of the course is available here,
and a link to the course descriptor at KU Leuven here.
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address.

St Bede Annual Lecture in Liturgy

Prof. Thomas O’Loughlin

Title yet to be determined

to be given on Sunday, 5 July 2025
beginning at 2.30 pm

Event held at
the Ealing Abbey
2, Marchwood Crescent
Ealing, London W5 2DZ 

Fuller description available here.

Contact Clare Cogswell at this email address.
A map is available here.

Block 2: 7 – 18 July 2025, weekdays

L702 Liturgy in the West: History and Context

(required for IL certificate)  KU Leuven 4 credits
Prof. Thomas O’Loughlin and Prof. Stefan Geiger OSB

The course aims to provide insight into the origin and developments of the liturgy in the West up to the present day. Students reflect on the different cultural periods of society and how these shape the liturgy of the Catholic Church and how the liturgy in turn influences the culture. Students examine both the historical and liturgical record and the recent debates among Catholic liturgists concerning the past and future development of the Roman Catholic liturgy. The course will proceed by means of a chronological study of the major periods of the liturgy of the Catholic Church in the West and beyond.

Three Hours including a break.

Fee: £300

A fuller description of the course is available here,
and a link to the course descriptor at KU Leuven here.
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address.

Block 3: 14 – 25 July 2025, weekdays

L704 Liturgical hermeneutics

(required for IL certificate) KU Leuven 4 credits
Prof. Daniel McCarthy OSB

At the end of the course each student will be prepared: i. to interpret a liturgical prayer and its rite using a selection of analytical tools and liturgical dimensions, ii. describe the proper contribution of each analytical tool and liturgical dimension, for the interpretation of a specific text or rite, iii. situate another person’s interpretation of a liturgical prayer or rite according to these interpretative tools and liturgical dimensions.

Hours: 3 hours (including a break).

Cost: £280

A fuller description of the course is available here,
and a link to the course descriptor at KU Leuven here.

L718 Liturgies of the Early Church

(elective for IL certificate)     KU Leuven 4 credits
Dr Barry Craig

This course considers the two major parts of the Eucharist; the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist and is designed to lead the reader through the major periods of cultural and theological change in the Church particularly in the West up to the present. We wish clearly to indicate the changes in the liturgical forms throughout history and to present the theological understandings of the Eucharist in the different periods. In this way it is hoped that readers will understand both what the Church teaches and the reasons given for these teachings.

Three Hours including a break. 

Fee: £300

A fuller description of the course is available here,
and a link to the course descriptor at KU Leuven is available here.
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address

Syriac Summer Term

St Ephrem Lecture in Syriac Studies

to be given in colloboration with the project

Explorers in Syriac literature:
Publishing unedited Syriac manuscripts
from the British Library

by

Rev. Dr John Semaan, LMO

monk of the Lebanese Monastic Order
Professor, Holy Spirit University, Lebanon
Lecturer at the Pontifical University Sant’Anselmo, Rome

speaking on

Title

to be held on Saturday, 12 July 2025
beginning at 2:30 pm

at the Benedictine Institute
74 Castlebar Road
Ealing, London, W5 2DD

Fuller description available here.

Contact Clare Cogswell at this email address.
A map is available here.

SY411 Readings in Syriac

30 June – 25 July 2025, weekdays – not for credit

No exams – Not for credit.
Prof. John Elie Semaan LMO

This course is adapted to the level of beginning students. As needed the alphabet will be presented, but the majority of class time will be spent reading texts. During the first two weeks we shall review the pronouns, nouns and adjectives; prepositions, numbers, days and seasons with readings and exercises. During the third and fourth weeks we shall work on verbs in different roots, forms and tenses with readings and exercises. We shall also begin to translate biblical and liturgical texts. At the end of the course each student will be prepared to describe and explain short readings from the Syriac New Testament and to produce translations of the texts.

Hours: 8:30 – 10:00 including a break

Fee: £300 per 2 weeks; £500 per 4 weeks (with minimum numbers).

A fuller description of the course is available here.
Enrol directly with the Institutum Liturgicum London.
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address.

Syriac Project publishing unedited Syriac manuscripts

No exams – not for credit.
Prof. John Elie Semaan LMO

We shall work on unedited manuscripts in Syriac from the British Library or from other digitalized manuscripts. We shall transcribe and translate the Syriac texts into English or French depending on the need of the student. When a manuscript does not have a colophon, we shall use palaeography and other methods to begin to understand the date and origin of the manuscript. Our goal is to publish these unedited Syriac texts in our journal Ephemerides Ealingnenses and in an online database: syriaca.org.

If you are interested in joining our project, please contact Clare Cogswell at this email linkand she will put you into contact with Elie Semaan.

Dates: Enrol for the first week only: 30 June – 4 July 2025
or for the first two weeks: 30 June – 11 July 2025, weekdays
or for the first three weeks: 30 June – 18 July 2025, weekdays
or for all four weeks: 30 June – 25 July 2025, weekdays.

Hours: to be determined

Fee: £300 for 2 weeks; £500 for 4 weeks

A fuller description of the course is available here.
Enrol directly with the Institutum Liturgicum London.
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address.

Biblical Hebrew Summer Term

28 July – 1 August 2025, weekdays – not for credit

BH411 Biblical Hebrew for Beginners

No exams – Not for credit.
Prior Anselm Brumwell OSB

Students should study the Hebrew alphabet and vocalisation system in advance of the course, since this will be assumed. This one-week intensive course aims to introduce the basics of the Biblical Hebrew language, enabling the student to begin to read more straightforward prose texts from the Old Testament.

Two hours in the morning and two hours in the early afternoon. Hours yet to be determined.

Fee: £380

A fuller description of the course is available here.
Enrol directly with the Institutum Liturgicum London.
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address.

Latin Summer Term

ONLINE ONLY
21 July – 1 August 2025, weekdays

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Online Latin courses and courses offered throughout the year are listed at the Benedictine Institute link here.

IN PERSON ONLY
11 – 22 August 2025, weekdays

Only L711 may be taken for academic credit

 

LA411 Beginning Latin

No exams – Not for credit.
No knowledge of the language is presumed. From the first day, you will tackle real Latin from acorss the centuries, and begin to express yourself in Latin. We will cover:

• All verb times in the indicative
• The active and passive voice
• Command forms
• All noun and adjective groups and most of their usages.

We use the teaching method of Reginald Foster directly from his book Ossa Latinitatis Sola.

ONLINE ONLY
21 July – 1 August 2025, weekdays

IN PERSON ONLY
11 – 22 August 2025, weekdays

3 hours each weekday including a break.

Fee: £380

A fuller description of the course is available here.
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address.

LA611 Intermediate Latin

No exams – Not for credit.

Students entering this level will be expected to have a solid grasp of the topics covered in Beginning Latin. You will read a variety of original Latin texts, spanning many centuries, and write in Latin. We will cover:

• The meaning and uses of the subjunctive mood
• The forms and natural meanings of the four participles
• VArious uses of participles including the ablative absolute.

Intermediate Latin covers the material of the Third Latin Experience in Ossa Latinitatis Sola. We use the teaching method of Reginald Foster.

This not-for-credit course is designed for students preparing for the exam following the initial semester of Latin at KU Leuven, and the Latin proficiency exam at the Pontifical Institute of Liturgy, Rome.

ONLINE ONLY
21 July – 1 August 2025, weekdays

IN PERSON ONLY
11 – 22 August 2025, weekdays

3 hours each weekday including a break.

Fee: £380

A fuller description of the course is available here.
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address.

LA711 Advanced Latin

Students will encounter Latin literature written by many authors from every age. During this course students will learn and develop a facility with the following elements of the Latin language:

• The accusative with the infinitive used in indirect discourse and object sentences,
• The gerund and gerundive and the participle of passive necessity,
• Conditional sentences: if … , then … ,
• The 3% use of the sequence of tenses and modal attraction,
• Verbs of doubting, fearing and prohibiting,
• Oblique complements of verbs and their passive construction,
• Specific usages of the dative, genitive, ablative,
• Overviews of:
  • 14 ways to express purpose,
  • 10 usages of the relative pronoun,
  • Positive and negative commands,

We use the teaching method of Reginald Foster OCD from his book Ossa Latinitatis Sola, and its forthcoming companion volume Ossa Ostensa Book 3 by Laura Pooley. This course covers most of the Fourth Experience in ten weekdays.

The material presumed for this course is listed above for the First and Third Experiences.

Students wishing more instruction are encouraged to enrol also in Reading Ovid, LA813. A discount is offered when enrolling with us in both courses.

Location: Benedictine Institute,
74 Castlebar Road, Ealing W5 2DD

ONLINE ONLY
21 July – 1 August 2025, weekdays

IN PERSON ONLY
11 – 22 August 2025, weekdays

3 hours each weekday including a break.

Enrol directly with us for the not-for-credit course.

Cost: £380.

A fuller description of the course is available here.
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address.

L711 Proficient Latin for Liturgists

(elective for IL certificate)     KU Leuven 4 credits
Daniel McCarthy

Students will encounter Latin liturgical texts and canonical texts on liturgy written by authors from many ages. They will proceed to a greater facility and ease with the Latin language and come to a more detailed and direct understanding of liturgical texts. They will develop a fuller expression of liturgical ideas accurately and beautifully in both Latin and English. We use the teaching method of Reginald Foster OCD directly from the draft copy of his book Ossa Latinitatis Sola along with a workbook in development by Laura Pooley which allows students to cover most of the Fourth Experience in ten weekdays. The material covered in its First and Third Experiences is presumed for this course, including the natural meaning and usages of the four participles and the forms and very many usages of the subjunctive mode. Because of limited hours of instruction, we shall cover the main elements, but not all of the Fourth Experience. These include indirect discourse (accusative with the infinitive), gerunds and gerundives, conditional sentences.

Canon law students of KU Leuven who are qualified may enrol in this course along with the course Reading Cicero’s Letters as a preparation for the advanced exam in Latin at KU Leuven. This course was originally designed for liturgists but includes a consideration of canonical texts relating to liturgy such as Sacrosanctum Concilium, Praenotanda, Decreta and sententia that involve liturgical law.

Students wishing more instruction are encouraged to enrol also in Reading Ovid, LA813.

IN PERSON ONLY
11 – 22 August 2025, weekdays

3 hours each weekday including a break.

Our Registrar, Clare Cogswell, will help students enrol for this course L711 for credit with KU Leuven: B-KUL-A07E3A.

Otherwise, students may enrol directly with us for the full not-for-credit course LA711. Fee: £380.

A fuller description of the course is available here.
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address.

LA813 Reading Ovid

No exams – Not for credit.
Jonathan Day

The Metamorphoses is widely hailed as Ovid’s greatest work, and from its composition in roughly 8 CE to the present day, it has exerted an unparalleled influence on art, music, and culture. Its 15 books cover over 250 mythic narratives.

Our goal will be to read selections from the Metamorphoses slowly and carefully, seeking a deep understanding of the language and an appreciation of Ovid’s poetic rhythms.

We will work in seminar format, teaching and learning from one another. Texts will be provided. Ovid’s Latin is fairly advanced, so participants should have at least completed the Intermediate (Third Experience) program before joining this seminar. It can be taken in conjunction with the Advanced (Fourth Experience) program.

IN PERSON ONLY
11 – 22 August 2025, weekdays

We’ll meet for two hours daily, including a short break.

Fee: £200
Discount fee £175 when this reading course is taken in combination with LA711 Advanced Latin or L711 Proficient Latin for Liturgists (and Canonists).

A fuller description of the course is available here.
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address.

FAQs: Frequently asked questions about the summer session

A listing of our courses for the summer of 2024 here
and a proposed course listing for the summer of 2025 is based on that for the summer of 2023 available here.

© James Leachman, O.S.B., page updated by DM on 12 March 2025.