RYAN BELL

Pilgrims in a Polarized Church: Thomas Merton and Raymond Hunthausen.

September 9, 2025, 7 PM. EST

REGISTER

In this presentation, Ryan Bell will explore how Thomas Merton had a profound influence on the life of Raymond Hunthausen, the high-profile, boundary-pushing Archbishop of Seattle from 1975 to 1991. While the two scions of the post-Vatican II American Catholic Church never met, Merton’s writings on peace and justice spurred Hunthausen to begin a series of headline- grabbing protests against nuclear arms, racism, and sexism. Ryan will outline how Merton’s influence on Hunthausen turned the archbishop into a modern prophet within an increasingly polarized American Catholic Church.  

Ryan Bell is a recent graduate of the University of Denver and a professed Benedictine Oblate at Benet Hill Monastery in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He was a Daggy Scholar at the 2023 ITMS meeting at St. Mary’s College.

VINCENT PIZZUTO

Delicious Tranquility: Near-Death Experiences and the Quietud Sabrosa.

October 14, 2025, 7 PM. EST

In the fifty years since Dr. Raymond Moody’s 1975 landmark publication, Life After Life, modern research into the phenomena of Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) and related studies in consciousness have flourished. Among the cross-disciplinary approaches to this burgeoning field, there is an unnamed question emerging: At what point do we shift from an emphasis on seeking scientific evidence in support of the veracity of NDEs to an exploration of whether NDEs might themselves contribute to a deeper understanding of perennial spiritual experience? While clearly this will not be a uniform development across disciplines, my presentation seeks to make this leap by exploring Thomas Merton’s breathtaking description of the quietud sabrosa (“delicious tranquility”) found in New Seeds of Contemplation, (Chpt. 38: “Pure Love,” 275-289) in light of NDEs. Indeed, much of what Merton describes here has an uncanny resonance those who have remembered experiences during their time of clinical death. I will suggest then, that the model of consciousness (namely, “Idealism”) that best supports the phenomena of NDEs might likewise be marshalled to provide deeper insights into what is unfolding interiorly in experiences of infused contemplation such as Merton describes as a quietud sabrosa.

Father.Vincent Pizzuto, Ph.D. is Professor of New Testament Studies and Christian Mysticism in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Francisco and serves as Vicar of St. Columba's Episcopal Church and Contemplative Center in Inverness, CA. Working for the advancement of contemplative Christianity, he has reinvigorated the mission and ministry of St. Columba’s through the introduction of contemplative eucharistic liturgies, contemplative residency programs, online courses, directed retreats, sermon podcasts, and an online blog, among other initiatives. In 2018 he published his second book, Contemplating Christ: The Gospels and the Interior Life, with Liturgical Press, released in Spanish, Contemplar a Cristo: Los Evangelios y la vida interior, in January 2022 by Desclée de Brouwer. A Chinese translation is underway with Kuang Chi Culture, Taiwan. He is currently working on his next book project on studies in consciousness and Christian Spirituality.

HARLEY MATTHEWS

Merton and the Protestant Tradition.

November 11, 2025, 7 PM. EST

Harley Dean Mathews, is a student at Louisville Seminary and pursuing a call to ministry with the United Methodist Church. Harley is married to Amanda Mathews, an artist. Harley has a background in multi-faith dialogue, mysticism, nonviolence, creative contemplation and the underground music scene. 

JUDITH VALENTE

In Their Own Words: The Monks Who Knew Merton.

December 9, 2025, 7 PM. EST

There are only a few remaining monks at the Abbey of Gethsemani who knew Thomas Merton personally. One is now 103 years old.  ITMS President (2023-2025) Judith Valente spent time  interviewing those monks about their encounters with Merton. Their memories are vivid and entertaining. Not surprisingly, Merton remains a complex figure for many of them.  They talk frankly about his relationship with M. and his fierce opposition to the abbey's mail order businesses, but also his ability to relate to struggling monks, his humor, and his capacity to admit a mistake. The monks also share memories of those fateful days after Merton's body was returned from Bangkok and his brothers had to bring him to his final rest.

 

Judith Valente worked as a staff writer for The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal and as an on-air correspondent for national PBS-TV, Chicago Public Radio and GLT Radio, the National Public Radio affiliate in central Illinois where she lives. She is the author of three collections of poetry and six spirituality books, including How to Live: What The Rule of St. Benedict Teaches Us about Happiness, Meaning and Community, and The Art of Pausing: Meditations for the Overworked and Overwhelmed and How to Be: A Monk & A Journalist Reflect on Living & Dying, Purpose & Prayer, Friendship & Forgiveness, the latter two co-authored with Brother Paul Quenon of the Abbey of Gethsemani. She guides retreats around the country on how to live a more contemplative life in the secular world and leads an annual Benedictine Footprints contemplative, cultural, culinary pilgrimage/retreat in Italy, which offers a "slow tourism" experience of  Italian life and lesser-known Benedictine sites. Her latest book is The Italian Soul: How To Savor the Full Joys of Life, based on what she has learned from her many stays in Italy about living more joyfully and mindfully. 

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