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Events
Fall 2023 Events
SPECIAL STREAMING Ex Libris Author Event
"Come Forth: The Promise of Jesus's Greatest Miracle" with Fr. James Martin, SJ
Join the Center for the Study of Spirituality for an exciting event commemorating the publication of Fr. James Martin, SJ's latest book Come Forth: The Promise of Jesus's Greatest Miracle. This new book combines compelling analysis of the biblical text, insights about the historical setting of the story, spiritual lessons for today’s readers, meditations on Lazarus in art and the larger culture, as well as stories from Fr. Martin’s travels through the Holy Land. Rev. James Martin, SJ, is a Jesuit priest, editor at large of America magazine, consultor to the Vatican's Dicastery for Communication, and author of numerous books, including three previous New York Times bestsellers.
Thursday September 7, 2023
7:00 PM ET, Free and open to the public — Online Only
[Click Here for Livestream Registration]
"Ecospirituality: Introduction to Practices of Radical Kinship, Rewilding, and Ecotherapy"
Rachel Wheeler, PhD (University of Portland)
Tuesday September 12, 2023
5:00 PM ET, Stapleton Lounge, Le Mans Hall
Co-Sponsored by the Environmental Studies Department and the Religious Studies and Theology Department
Free and open to the public — In person and Online
[Click Here for Livestream Registration]
"Cultivating Sacred Ecology: More than Farm, More than Food, More than Faith" — A Panel Discussion Featuring Members of the Saint Mary's College Community.
Farmer Matthew Insley (SMC Sustainable Farm)
Sincere Cannon (SMC Student)
Dr. Sally Geislar (Environmental Studies Department)
Dr. Julie Tourtillotte (Department of Art)
Tuesday October 3, 2023
5:00 PM ET, Carroll Auditorium, Madeleva Hall
Co-Sponsored by the Environmental Studies Department and the Religious Studies and Theology Department
Free and open to the public — In person and Online
[Click Here for Livestream Registration]
"Wise and Holy Women: Four Women Doctors of the Church and Their Timeless Relevance for Today"
Br. Mickey McGrath, OSFS (Artist and Author)
Thursday November 2, 2023
5:00 PM ET, Carroll Auditorium, Madeleva Hall
Co-Sponsored by the Department of Art and the Religious Studies and Theology Department
Free and open to the public — In person and Online
[Click Here for Livestream Registration]
The 2023 Fourth and Walnut Lecture
"Merton's Christophany and the Second Axial Monk"
Sr. Ilia Delio, OSF, PhD (Villanova University)
Tuesday November 14, 2023
7:00 PM ET, Carroll Auditorium, Madeleva Hall
Co-Sponsored by the International Thomas Merton Society and the Center for the Study of Spirituality
Free and open to the public — In person and Online
[Click Here for Livestream Registration]
The Ex Libris Author Lecture Series (2023-2024 Schedule)
Tuesday November 28, 2023
Julia Feder, PhD (Saint Mary's College)
Incarnating Grace: A Theology of Healing from Sexual Trauma
5:00 PM ET, Carroll Auditorium, Madeleva Hall
Free and open to the public — In person and Online
[Click Here for Livestream Registration]
The bookstore will have books available for purchase and author will sign books after the presentation.
Tuesday March 5, 2024
Brian Robinette, PhD (Boston College)
The Difference Nothing Makes: Creation, Christ, Contemplation
5:00 PM ET, Stapleton Lounge, Le Mans Hall
Free and open to the public — In person and Online
[Click Here for Livestream Registration]
The bookstore will have books available for purchase and author will sign books after the presentation.
Wednesday March 20, 2024
Jason Steidl-Jack, PhD (St. Joseph University)
LGBTQ+ Catholic Ministry: Past and Present
5:00 PM ET, Carroll Auditorium, Madeleva Hall
Free and open to the public — In person and Online
[Click Here for Livestream Registration]
The bookstore will have books available for purchase and author will sign books after the presentation
"Tuesdays with Merton" Webinar Series
A webinar series presented by the International Thomas Merton Society and the Center for Spirituality at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame on the second Tuesday of each month. Free and open to the public. Registration is required to access the Zoom link.
Recordings of the webinars will be available on the Tuesdays with Merton YouTube Channel within a few days of their broadcast: Tuesdays with Merton YouTube Channel. Audio-only versions also will be available later via podcast (subscribe wherever you download your favorite podcasts). To learn more about past and future speakers in the "Tuesdays with Merton" webinar series, visit: http://merton.org/itms/twm/
September 12, 2023 (8:00 PM ET) — Mark Meade — "The Seven Storey Mountain at Seventy-Five: Classic or Déclassé"
THE SEVEN STOREY MOUNTAIN has reached another milestone. How has Merton’s autobiography fared in the first quarter of the 21st century? Since the book’s fiftieth anniversary, the Catholic Church has had three contrasting papacies and undergone severely damaging scandals of clergy sexual abuse. The Catholic Church in the United States, in line with other Christian denominations, has suffered declining church membership further fueled by a pandemic break in in-person attendance. Are Merton’s words now less central to the American religious experience, or does his story of spiritual longing resonate with people of our time in the U.S. and the world.
MARK C. MEADE is the Assistant Director of the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University in Louisville, KY. The year 2023 marks his 20th year at the Merton Center. He is a past president of the International Thomas Merton Society. He has presented and published on Merton in the United States and abroad on topics including Merton’s correspondence with Victoria Ocampo, Merton and existentialist themes, and Merton and Albert Camus on opposition to the death penalty.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE WEBINAR
October 10, 2023 (8:00 PM ET) — Cassidy Hall — "Queering Thomas Merton"
WHAT WOULD IT LOOK LIKE TO QUEER THOMAS MERTON? What is queer theory and queer theology and how can they be used as a lens to better understand Merton—and ourselves? In our time together, Cassidy, a cis queer white woman, will examine the ways the traditional western Christian contemplative canon has left out far too many voices from the conversation. She will share a part of her own contemplative journey which led her to traveling to all 17 Trappist Monasteries of the US, Directing a film about Thomas Merton’s hermitage years, and writing the forthcoming book Queering Contemplation: Finding Queerness in the Roots and Future of Contemplative Spirituality.
CASSIDY S. HALL (SHE/HER), MA, MDIV, MTS, is an author, award-winning filmmaker, podcaster, and leading voice in contemplative spirituality. She is the cohost of the Encountering Silence podcast and the creator of the Contemplating Now and Queering Contemplation podcasts. Her films include In Pursuit of Silence and Day of a Stranger. Cassidy is widely published and currently resides in Indianapolis, where she is studying for her DMin degree.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE WEBINAR
December 12, 2023 (8:00 PM ET) — Gray Matthews — "Contemplative Mayhem"
THIS PRESENTATION is a thought experiment in deep responsiveness. The question of contemplation—in a world of action that is deteriorating into a frantic order of hyper-activity, brutal re-activism, and paralyzed strategies of inaction—begs for a pause to deliberately rethink and reimagine the nature of not only the practice of contemplation, but the contemplative nature of life itself. Given a diet of crises, catastrophes, and collapses, there is a tradition of self-deadening retreat from the maddening order of noise in order to seek rest in the privileged shelter of false tranquility. Instead of an orderly evasion of grief, I think our suffering world is calling for contemplative mayhem in responsive depth.
GRAY MATTHEWS, assistant professor of Communication at the University of Memphis, Memphis TN, has served the International Thomas Merton Society as a member of the Board, co-editor of The Merton Annual, coordinator of the 2007 ITMS conference, as well as coordinator of the Memphis ITMS Chapter since 2001. Gray has been a frequent presenter at ITMS conferences and recently authored an exploratory essay on Merton and decolonial issues of contemplative concern.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE WEBINAR
Upcoming "Tuesdays with Merton" Dates:
- Mark your calendars for the following dates:
Tuesday September 12;
Tuesday October 10;
Tuesday November 14 (Fourth & Walnut Lecture);
Tuesday December 12 - More details to be announced in the coming months