Living Together With Wisdom:
Merton's Call to Transform Our Hearts and Lives
guide to concurrent Sessions
Session A - Friday, June 5 - 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM
Session B - Friday, June 5 - 3:30 PM - 4:45 PM
Session C - Saturday, June 6 - 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM
Session D - Saturday, June 6 - 1:30 PM - 2:45 PM
Session E - Saturday, June 6 - 3:15 PM - 4:30 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE 5
10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
A1. Thomas Merton and Personhood
a.
Nass Cannon – "A Circle Dance of Love: Thomas
Merton, Contemplation, and the Cosmic Dance."
Thomas Merton
envisions the world and time as the "dance of the Lord in emptiness." This
paper reflects on this "cosmic dance" by considering Merton's contemplative
gaze of humankind as interpenetrated by the Spirit of the resurrected
Christ. From that perspective, we all become dancers whose movements trace a
universal circle dance of love .
b. Jonathan
Sozek – "Thomas Merton on Being a Person."
Jonathan Sozek is a PhD candidate in Religious Studies at Brown University,
writing on the concept of the person in twentieth century philosophy and
theology.
This paper considers the value and utility today of Merton's distinction between the person and the individual. Merton's distinction is linked to French personalism, then brought into conversation with Pope Francis’s claim that the financial crisis resulted from a "denial of primacy of the human person!"
A2. Merton and Environmental Responsibility
a. Kathleen Deignan – "Apocalypse in Paradise: Merton as Guide through 'The Sixth Extinction'."
Kathleen Deignan is Professor of Religious Studies and Founding Director of
The Iona Spirituality Institute at Iona College where she animates The
Merton Contemplative Initiative. Her books include
When the Trees Say
Nothing: Thomas Merton’s Writings on Nature and
Thomas Merton: A
Book of Hours.
This paper will explore this bifocal vision of Merton, which display the
interplay of this searing and transformative dialectic – the apocalypse of
paradise, and the seeds of paradise to be retrieved from the deserts of
apocalypse. In this way, Merton's wisdom is offered as light for
generations whose destiny it is to make their way through a dark night of
Earth, laboring to recover paradise once more.
b. Marilyn Sundermann – "Thomas Merton on Simplicity of Life and Its Lessons for 21st Century Sustainability."
Dr. Marilyn Sunderman, RSM, Associate Professor of Theology, Saint Joseph's
College of Maine, has published articles and reviews on Merton's writings in
The Merton Annual and The Merton Seasonal.
This presentation
examines the simple living that Thomas Merton embraced as a Cistercian
monk. It explores insights into simplicity of life Merton gleaned from the
writings of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the Shaker tradition, and Merton's
hermit years. It considers Merton's wisdom regarding simplicity in
relationship to 21st century sustainability challenges.
A3. Merton and the Inner Journey
a. Michael Plekon – "'What I wear is pants. What I do is live. How I pray is breathe…': Merton and the Spiritual Life in the 21st Century."
Michael Plekon is
professor of Sociology and Religion and Culture at Baruch College of the
City University of New York. He is a priest in the Orthodox Church in
America, attached to St Gregory the Theologian Church, Wappingers Falls NY.
I will examine how Merton’s spiritual journey remarkably resonates with the 21st century. "Day of a Stranger" is a particularly important text for such a reflection, but there are other passages from his journals and his retreat, The Springs of Contemplation. Merton's thinking about the spiritual life is authentic and accessible, the outcome of his own struggle with his weaknesses, the needs of the world and God's mercy and most relevant to our time.
b. Fiona Gardner – "Unlocking the Door From the Inside."
Fiona Gardner is a
psychoanalytic psychotherapist, spiritual director and writer. She is on the
committee of TMSGBI and UK International Advisor for the ITMS.
Diary entries made
before Merton's death reflect the psychological work he achieved over his
lifetime: the very psyche that keeps the mystic bound is the same psyche
that can provide the means of salvation. His understanding of the
psycho-spiritual offers a pioneering, relevant and forward-thinking legacy
to twenty-first century seekers.
A4. Merton and Dialogue with Asia
a. Patrick F. O’Connell – "Did Thomas Merton Underrate
Confucianism?"
Patrick F. O'Connell,
a founding member and former president of the ITMS, is professor of English
and Theology at Gannon University, Erie, PA. With Christine M. Bochen and
William H. Shannon, he is coauthor of
The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia
and has edited six volumes of Merton’s monastic conferences as well as his
Selected Essays.
He has served as editor of The
Merton Seasonal since 1998.
Professor de Bary criticizes Merton for what he sees as a rather ahistorical and superficial approach to Confucianism and maintains that "Merton's writings on the whole have almost nothing to say about Confucianism.
"b
Jaechan Park OSB is from South Korea and is presently researching Thomas Merton and monastic interreligious dialogue for his Ph.D Thesis at the University of Toronto.
In his spiritual journey, Thomas Merton was influenced by Zen Buddhism. The knowledge he acquired from Zen facilitated his dialogue with other Monasticisms. Using Zen and Christian thought, primarily, Merton contributed to monastic interreligious dialogue and provided a bridge to future harmonious relationships with other religions. This paper will discuss this process
A5. Workshop
Christine M. Bochen – "Learning How to Drink Tea: Studying and Teaching Thomas Merton."
Christine M. Bochen, professor of religious studies and holder of the William H. Shannon Chair in Catholic Studies, is a founding member and past president of ITMS. She has edited several volumes of Merton’s writings and an anthology of Merton’s writings, Thomas Merton Essential Writings; co-authored The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia, and, most recently, with William H. Shannon, edited Thomas Merton: A Life in Letters.
After briefly considering what the enigmatic title of the workshop tells us
about Merton’s view of the purpose of education, we will explore,
experience, and share ways of studying and teaching Merton – from selecting
readings and resources to creating opportunities for reflection and
discussion. Nazareth College students will share what they have learned
through their study of Merton and offer advice for teachers and students
alike.
A6. Performance
James Nagle – "Thomas Merton: Alive at Fourth and Walnut."
Jim Nagle’s goal in life is to help people realize that they are loved
unconditionally by God. How does he do this? Mainly through the arts and
his life. This pilgrim and dreamer hails from Cleveland, Ohio, and has celebrated life
as a teacher, a poet, a playwright, a story-teller, a clown (in all 50
states), and an actor.
This one-person play
portrays the life and spiritual journey of Thomas Merton — his youth,
conversion, monastic/hermit life and untimely death. We see the struggles,
joys and challenges he embraced in becoming the deeply human monk, prophet,
poet and spiritual writer God called him to be.
A7.
Guided Prayer
Jonathan Montaldo – "Praying in Gratitude for the Church of Our Friends."
Jonathan Montaldo is a former president of the ITMS. He recently co-edited a
volume of reflections that honor Merton's centenary, We are Already One:
Thomas Merton's Message of Hope.
Reflecting together
on excerpts from Merton's journals and a conference to novices on prayer, we
will "enter the school of our own lives" in silent meditation and then
compose our own prayers of gratitude for, and in solidarity with, the church
of our life's best friends.
FRIDAY,
JUNE 5
3:30 PM – 4:45
PM
B1. Merton and Discipleship
a.
Daniel P. Horan
– "Evangelical Poverty in Thomas Merton and Pope Francis: The Heart
of Christian Discipleship."
Daniel P. Horan, OFM is a Franciscan friar of Holy Name Province (NY), a
columnist for America magazine, and currently serves on the Board of
Directors of International Thomas Merton Society. He is the author of seven
published books, the most recent are the forthcoming
The Franciscan Heart of Thomas Merton:
A New Look at the Spiritual Inspiration of His Life, Thought, and Writing.
In this paper I offer
a substantive examination of the theme of evangelical poverty in Merton's
writings and draw on the recent work of Pope Francis to illustrate how
Merton's work not only presciently intuits the current pope's own approach
to Christian discipleship in the modern world, but how Merton's work also
offers us a complementary resource and hermeneutical lens through which to
read texts such as Evangelii Gaudium. I show how both Merton and Pope
Francis see evangelical poverty as central to Christian living, as well as a
means to solidarity and a protest against abject poverty.
b. Fernando Beltran – "'Old Answers are Not Sufficient': Thomas Merton and the Sermon on the Mount."
Fernando Beltrán is an ITMS International Advisor. He co-directed, with Dr.
Paul M. Pearson, the First International Conference on Thomas Merton in
Spain (October 2006).
Instances of Merton's
following of the Beatitudes will be shown which explain the scope and
poignancy of his message today, rooted in his experience that the very
"ground of birth is Paradise" wherein stands the Tree of life, the true
heart of contemplation and the root of all compassionate action.
B2. Merton and Liberation
a. Mark C. Meade – "A Future Without the Death Penalty: Merton and René Girard on the Scapegoating Instinct."
Mark
C. Meade is the assistant director of the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine
University. He is a board member of the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the
Death Penalty.
How much support for
executing criminals is based on an equitable standards of justice and how
much rests upon a societal need to make criminals a scapegoat in response to
violent crime? This paper brings newly discovered Merton materials on the
death penalty into conversation with the postmodern thinker René Girard.
b. Robert Rowen-Herzog – "Thomas Merton and Ignacio Martin-Baro: Integrating the Historical and the Transcendent."
Robert Rowen-Herzog is the former editor of
Radical Grace, a publication of
the Center for Action and Contemplation founded by Richard Rohr, O.F.M.
He is currently a doctoral candidate in Clinical Psychology at
Meridian University, studying the nexus of Imaginal Psychology and
Liberation Psychology in the development of critical consciousness.
In this paper I place Merton in dialogue with the founder of liberation
psychology, Jesuit priest and martyr, Ignacio Martin-Baro. Merton observed
the evolution toward a sort of tyranny of the self, in the post-Freudian age
of psychology; liberation theology and, later, liberation psychology began
as movements to counter the focus on the self in the culture. This
philosophical dialogue would serve as a means of integrating the historical
and the transcendent, thus extending the influence of Merton on the social
issues that face this world; only in the integration of the transcendent and
the historical can we as a culture imagine solutions to the social ills that
Merton so aptly described and portended over forty years ago.
B3.
Merton and Poetry
a.
Deborah Kehoe
–
"Merton’s Poetry, Past and Future."
Deborah Kehoe lives in Oxford, Mississippi. She teaches English at Northeast
Community College and the University of Mississippi. This is her sixth ITMS
conference presentation.
Inspired by Jay Parini's metaphor of the palimpsest to illustrate any poet's relationship with past and future writers, this paper examines selections from Cables to the Ace for traces of Merton's poetic precursors, and explores Merton's underlying presence in contemporary poet Lisa Gill's similarly subtitled Letters to a Dead Trappist.
b.
Lynn Szabo
– "'Blind Lions Looking for Springs in the Desert': Thomas Merton and
the Word That Never Stops Speaking."
Lynn R. Szabo is
professor of American literature at Trinity Western University. She edited
In The Dark Before Dawn: New Selected
Poems of Thomas Merton (2005).
In engaging the
hermeneutics of human narrative, both in poetry and prose, Merton is a
prophet of the current debates about language, leaving us an understanding
that emanates from his wrestling with the mysteries of the ineffable silence
of God who is the origin of all speech.
B4. Merton and Zen
a.
Ed Sellner
– "Awakening: The Friendship Between Thomas Merton and D. T. Suzuki."
Ed Sellner, Ph.D., is professor of theology at St. Catherine
University in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the author of numerous books,
including
Wisdom of the Celtic Saints and
Finding the Monk Within.
In Zen
Buddhism the word for "awakening" is satori. This paper will examine the
transforming effect D.T. Suzuki's writings on Zen had upon Thomas Merton,
and the friendship between the two men. Implications of that relationship
for a new generation of seekers, deeply interested in a spirituality that
incorporates the best from both East and West, will be discussed.
b.
Leslie Alldritt
– "Zen
Lives of Dialogue: Thomas Merton and Masao Abe at 100."
Leslie
D. Alldritt is an Associate Professor of Religion at Northland College. He
contributed a chapter on Tillich and Abe to a
festschrift dedicated to Abe.
Thomas Merton and
noted Japanese Buddhist scholar Masao Abe (d. 2006) were born in 1915 and
their ideas on a number of philosophical and social issues were remarkably
related. This paper will carefully examine the extant correspondence between
the two men and explore and extend the common and contrasting aspects of
their respective religio-philosophies.
B5.
Workshop
Angus Stuart
– "Consonantia:
Poetry & Jazz as a Parable of the Soul."
Angus
Stuart is a Board Member of the Thomas Merton Society of Canada and a former
chair of the Thomas Merton Society of Great Britain & Ireland.
In Day of a
Stranger, Merton speaks of "all meanings are absorbed in the
consonantia of heat, fragrant pine, quiet wind, bird song and one
central tonic note that is unheard and unuttered." In this interactive
workshop we will explore this idea seeking our essential inner harmony with
the universe.
B6.
Performance
S.T. Georgiou and Jacqueline Chew
– "A
Contemplative Performance of Robert Lax's Poetic Masterwork,
Sea & Sky."
S.T.
Georgiou, Ph.D., teaches at the G.T.U. in Berkeley, California. Author of a
spiritual trilogy on Robert Lax; recent "Lax Lecturer" at St. Bonaventure
University.
Jacqueline Chew,
pianist, performed "The Niles-Merton Songs" with baritone Chad Runyon for
the 2005 ITMS in San Diego. She
is a Camaldolese-Benedictine Oblate.
Sea & Sky
is an abstract-minimalist creation, a subliminal, tonal, wave-flow poem that
functions as an iconic portal into the dreaming subconscious.
This one-hour performance celebrates Lax's centenary, (he was born in
1915, like Merton), and is a seamless flow of word and piano interludes.
Discussion follows.
B7. Guided Prayer
Johnny Sears
– "The
Spirituality of Restlessness: Merton as a Model for 21st Century
Contemplative Life."
Johnny
Sears is the director of The Academy for Spiritual Formation®. He is a
Baptist layperson and former engineer who now leads experiences in
contemplative spirituality. He lives in Nashville, TN.
Merton’s was a
journey of restlessness that drove him to monastic life and later compelled
him into a deeper, prophetic engagement with the world.
Using Merton's story as an example, this workshop will explore how
contemplative life and practice can help us embrace the seeming
contradictions of life as a path to personal and social transformation.
An experience of the "Welcoming Prayer" will be offered as a practice
that can help us embrace and transform our own restlessness.
10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
C1.
Merton and
the Contemplative Pause
a. Don Grayston – "Consonantia: Cosmology and Contemplative Practice."
b. Gary Hall – "All Bystanders Now?: Attention and Communication in the Womb of Collective Illusion.
"
We face such a
complex array of information about the world that it can be difficult to be
anything other than a bystander. Zygmunt Bauman suggests that hope lies in
"communities of committed speech." This paper explores Bauman’s suggestion
in relation to Merton's Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander.
C2. Merton, Politics, and Progress
b. Gordon Oyer – "Thomas Merton and Our Culture’s Imperative of Progress.
"
Gordon Oyer has an MA in history and is author of
Pursuing the Spiritual
Roots of Protest, a book about Merton's 1964 peacemaker retreat.
C3. Merton and
Church
Raymond Carr is an Assistant Professor of Theology and Ethics at Pepperdine
University. His research interests are theologically ecumenical,
historically sensitive, and radically inclusive
.
Merton and Barth maintained a critical relationship to the church. Merton
functioned spiritually on the periphery focusing on the center from
"somewhere else," while Barth accented the center (Christ) to anchor his
vision of the Spirit. Thus, pneumatologically, their prophetic witness
suggests a spiritual vision for the 21st century church.
Casey Holland: B.A. Philosophy and
Religious Studies from Nazareth College, Rochester, NY. Attended the 2013
ITMS Conference as a Daggy Youth Scholar.
What role do younger generations play in sustaining the
Catholic Church in the 21st century? Examining current issues through the
letters and writings of Thomas Merton, this paper explores the task of
maintaining traditions in the face of an ever-changing world, and the
challenges that go along with doing so.
C4.
Merton as
Educational Model
In November 1964, Thomas Merton hosted a legendary retreat on the spiritual
roots of protest. In this session, the learning process of this retreat and
the method of Intergroup Dialogue will be compared. To deepen the
reflection, Thomas Merton and bell hooks will also be brought in dialogue.
Thomas A. Stewart, Ed.D. is an Associate Professor for Western Kentucky University's Department of Educational Administration, Leadership, and Research and co-founder of Contemplative Learning Solutions Educational Consulting (Bowling Green, KY).
Merton (1957) organized The Strange Islands into three distinct parts. Poems in this collection can also be used to illustrate a contemplative leadership growth arc (specifically that of a school leader). This paper utilizes three pieces included in Merton’s collection to demonstrate stages of a school leader’s emotional growth
.C5.
Workshop
Starting with brief
comments on Reza Araste's 1965 book Toward Final Personality Integration
and Merton’s 1968 article based on it, plus a contemporary update on
personal spiritual development, the workshop will include some
straightforward exercises enabling participants to consider fruitfully their
own spiritual journeys, followed by general discussion.
C6.
Performance
C7.
Guided
Prayer
An hour-long audio-visual reflection using segments from the recordings of Thomas Merton’s lectures at the Abbey of Gethsemani, interspersed with periods for silent reflection, and accompanied by images and quotations. The selected recordings bring together some of Merton’s key teaching on prayer and the spiritual life. The recordings are from the archives of the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University in Louisville, KY.
SATURDAY, JUNE 6
1:30 – 2:45 PM
D1. Merton and Living Contemplatively
a. Alan Kolp – "Mind the Light: A Mertonian - Quaker Approach to Contemplative Living."
Alan Kolp is Professor of Religion and holder of the Baldwin Wallace
University Chair in Faith & Life. He is a Quaker and a Benedictine oblate.
D2. Merton, Writers, and Saints
a. John P. Collins – "The Idolatry of the Marketplace: Thomas Merton and Flannery O'Connor
." John P. Collins publishes a monthly column on Thomas Merton in The Catholic Free Press and has authored numerous articles related to Merton studies. He is currently the facilitator of an ITMS Chapter at Shirley Correctional Institution in Massachusetts.
In 2013 Pope Francis issued his first Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii
Gaudium, in which he criticized the "idolatry of money," the golden
calf of our age. The Pope's important message is an echo of the prescient
voices of Thomas Merton and Flannery O'Connor. This paper will examine the
prophetic warnings by both writers, through their differing genres, about
the idols of the marketplace.
D3. Merton and Racism
a. Paul Dekar – "Thich Nhat Hanh, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Thomas Merton on Retreat.
" After early service as a United States diplomat, Paul R. Dekar has taught at Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan; Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia; McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, where he helped establish the Centre for Peace Studies; and, since 1995, Memphis Theological Seminary, where he is Professor Emeritus of Evangelism and Mission.b. Michael McGregor – "The Persistence of Harlem in the Life and Legacy of Thomas Merton."
D4. Merton and Interfaith Dialogue
a. Susanne Jennings – "Common and Dissonant Threads in Thomas Merton’s Interfaith Dialogue with Jewish and Islamic Figures.
" Susanne Jennings is an alumna of Cambridge University having read theology at under- and postgraduate levels, and has worked as Parish Pastoral Assistant and Parish Liturgist in the Diocese of East Anglia. She is now Faculty Librarian for Architecture and History of Art, Cambridge, teaches "A" level theology and religious studies and English Literature, supervises in theology at undergraduate level and is currently working on an academic study of Thomas Merton.During the latter part of his life, Thomas Merton corresponded with notable Jewish and Islamic figures on a number of topics including contemplation, prayer, mysticism, religious ritual and practice as well as on topical issues of social and moral concern. This paper aims to bring these dialogues under greater scrutiny by focusing on the ways in which Merton, as a Trappist monk, approached interfaith dialogue and on the responses he received from Jewish figures such as Erich Fromm, Zalman Schachter and Abraham Joshua Heschel and Muslim thinkers such as Abdul Aziz and the Catholic Islamisist Louis Massignon
.b. Cristobal Serrán-Pagán – "Beyond Dogmas: Cultivating Seeds of Love and Compassion in Thomas Merton and His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama."
D5. Merton and Historical Rebels
a. Michael A. Brennan – "Peter Abelard and Thomas Merton: Faithful Troublemakers
." Mike Brennan serves as ITMS Coordinator of Chapters and loves medieval and Church history. He works at O'Hare Airport and lives in Chicago with his wife and daughter.
Abelard and Merton, separated by some 800 years, dedicated themselves to a
search for truth, wherever that led, and struggled with the meaning of
obedience. Merton referenced Abelard in several Gethsemani conferences, and
this talk will explore a few of those perspectives and the challenges that
both men faced in their dealings with the Church.
D6. Workshop
D7. Performance
D8.
Guided Prayer
Paul M Pearson is
Director and Archivist of the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University,
resident secretary of the ITMS and chief of research for the Merton Legacy
Trust.
SATURDAY, JUNE 6
3:30
PM
– 4:45 PM
Christopher Pramuk teaches theology at Xavier University in Cincinnati. He
is the author of
Sophia: The Hidden Christ of Thomas Merton
(Liturgical, 2009) and
Hope Sings, So Beautiful: Graced Encounters
Across the Color Line (Liturgical, 2013).
E2. Merton
aa. William Apel – "Beyond Hiroshima: Thomas Merton, Hiromu Morishita, and a Legacy of Peace.
"b. James
Cronin – "A Nation Under Judgment: Frank Kowalski, Thomas Merton and the
'Peace Prayer'
This paper will seek to examine Thomas Merton’s "peace prayer" in the historical context of a growing national political lobby for peace during the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. It will consider the prayer's legacy question: to what extent do technologies of militarism determine political agency?
E3. Merton and Living in the World
a. Peter Ellis – "'Work is a Prayer' (The Sign of Jonas): Merton's Insights into Manual Labor."
b. Ryan Scruggs – "Thomas Merton and the Modern Myth of Progress: Uniting Scientia and Sapientia for the 21st Century."
Ryan Scruggs has taught theology at Alberta Bible College
in Calgary for the last six years. He completed an M.A. from McGill
University in 2010, with a thesis focusing on Thomas Merton's interest in
Karl Barth. This fall he will return to his alma mater to begin doctoral
work in Religious Studies. In 2007/8 he received a Shannon Fellowship to
research Merton's interest in Barth. He was also a Daggy scholar in 2009.
This presentation investigates Merton’s theological (and contemplative) critique of Cartesian dualism – the philosophical soil of the modern myth of progress – in preparation for life in the 21st century.
E4. Merton and Meaning
a. David Henderson – "'A Life Free From Care' – The Hermit and the Analyst."
David Henderson is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. He is a senior
lecturer at the Centre for Psychoanalysis, Middlesex University, London.
b. Jeffrey Cooper – "'I am his descent into hell': The Harrowing of Hell as Metaphor for Merton's Un/Burdening of Self."
Jeffrey Cooper, c.s.c., Ph.D. is a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross and Assistant Professor of Theology (Christian Spirituality) at the University of Portland.
This paper examines Merton’s spirituality of Selving as expressed particularly in his poem, "With the World in My Blood Stream." Through the metaphor of The Harrowing of Hell and the image of Meister Eckhart's dynamic "spark," Merton gives voice to the daily, fluid, lived experience of the Un/Burdening of Self.
E5. Workshop
A
A meditative workshop probing Merton's legacy of awe through glimpses of persons, nature, devastation and darkness. We will share "favorite" Merton awe-filled incidences, gaze at select calligraphies, then spend individual silent journaling time with reflection questions for written and/or visual response. An opportunity for optional sharing is included. Journaling supplies provided.
E6. Workshop
B
In this session, John
Dear will reflect on lessons of peace and nonviolence learned from Merton,
and invite participants to reflect on the lessons of peace and nonviolence
that they have learned from Merton, and discuss how together we can go
forward and break new ground in this new century of war and violence on the
path of peace and nonviolence.
E7.
PerformanceThe Shadow Theatre of the Grand Sneeze celebrates Merton's journey in discovering an effective language that would speak to a technological world. Shadow theater exists as "reflection" and by its nature distorts/contorts popular dramatic form allowing the shadow dramatist to fully exploit antipoetry and antidrama techniques; dynamic pathways Merton explored.
E8.
Guided Prayer