Tuesdays With Merton

A webinar series presented by the International Thomas Merton Society, and cosponsored by the Bernardin Center at Catholic Theological Union, on the second Tuesday of each month. Free and open to the public. Registration required.

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.

If you're enjoying these free webinars why not consider supporting the work of the ITMS by becoming a member or making a donation.

Upcoming Tuesdays with Merton

James Finley. Being A Healing Presence in a Wounded and Traumatized World. March 18, 2025 - 7 pm EST.
Fourth and Walnut Lecture. Virtual REGISTER and In-person.
Sarah Fuller and Becky McIntyre. Merton as Visual Artist and Creating Socially Conscious Art in the 21st Century. April 8, 2025 - 7 pm EST.
Ed Sellner. Kindred Spirits: Thomas Merton, Jack Kerouac, and Zen. May 13, 2025 - 7 pm EST.
Ryan Bell. Pilgrims in a Polarized Church: Thomas Merton and Raymond Hunthausen. September 9, 2025 - 7 pm EST.
Vincent Pizzuto. Merton and Contemplation in the 21st Century. October 14, 2025 - 7 pm EST.
Harley Matthews. Merton and the Protestant Tradition. November 11, 2025 - 7 pm EST.
Judith Valente. In Their Own Words: The Monks Who Knew Merton. December 9, 2025 - 7 pm EST.

2025 FOURTH AND WALNUT LECTURE

JAMES FINLEY

Being A Healing Presence in a Wounded and Traumatized World

March 18, 2025, 7 PM. EST

Virtual
and In-Person at Bellarmine University's Frazier Hall
Free and Open to the Public

James Finley Ph.D. lived as a monk at the cloistered Trappist monastery of the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky, where the world-renowned monk and author, Thomas Merton, was his spiritual director.

James Finley leads retreats and workshops throughout the United States and Canada, attracting men and women from all religious traditions who seek to live a contemplative way of life in the midst of today's busy world. He is also a clinical psychologist in private practice in Santa Monica, California.

James Finley is the author of: The Healing Path: A Memoir and an Invitation, Merton's Palace of Nowhere, The Contemplative Heart and Christian Meditation: Experiencing the Presence of God.

BECKY MCINTYRE & SARAH FULLER

Merton as Visual Artist and Creating Socially Conscious Art in the 21st Century.

April 8, 2025, 7 PM. EST

Becky McIntyre and Sarah Fuller will discuss their art and experiences as artists working in religious and social justice movements, particularly the Catholic Worker movement. They will discuss intersections of faith, resistance, creativity and justice in their own life histories and artistic practices. They will show and discuss examples of their art, and discuss ways in which the art and work of Thomas Merton touches on their own artistic practices.

Becky McIntyre is a community artist, printmaker, and muralist in Philadelphia, currently living as an artist in residence at St. Raphaela Center in Haverford, PA. She regularly creates the cover art for the Los Angeles Catholic Worker newspaper, is a community muralist who worked as Chief of Operations, project manager, and artist for Walls for Justice, and is the visual artist for the Synodality in Catholic Higher Education in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia (SCHEAP) project. Her website is www.sanaartista.com.

Sarah Fuller is a printmaker in Ventura, California, who creates art for the Catholic Worker movement. She was an Artist in Residence at the Bartimaeus Kinsler Institute in 2023. She has had art published in magazines, books, and Catholic Worker newsletters and newspapers. Her most recent book illustration project was for The Anabaptist Community Bible project with MennoMedia. Her website is www.sarahfullerart.com

ED SELLNER

Kindred Spirits: Thomas Merton, Jack Kerouac, and Zen.

May 13, 2025, 7 PM. EST

This talk is about two men of the twentieth century, giants in their own right, the monk Thomas Merton and the Beat writer Jack Kerouac who as Roman Catholics studied Zen Buddhism. Both had a great deal common: Celtic ancestry, students at Columbia University, grounded in a spirituality of nature and a love of animals that reflected their respect for all sensate creatures. Both too had a dark side, prone to depression, struggling with sanity, even suicide at times. This talk will discuss their similarities and differences, focusing upon their satori experiences, a Zen term for awakenings, epiphanies, enlightenment.

Ed Sellner, Ph.D., is professor emeritus in theology and spirituality at Saint Catherine University in St Paul, Minnesota, where he taught and administered programs for 35 years. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, he is author of numerous books on Celtic spirituality, western and eastern monasticism, and animal theology. Ed is also a spiritual director, trained at the Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland.

RYAN BELL

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

September 9, 2025, 7 PM. EST

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

Merton and Contemplation in the 21st Century.

October 14, 2025, 7 PM. EST

Fr. Vincent Pizzuto holds a Masters of Education in Religious Education from Boston College (1995), as well as a Masters (STL) and Doctorate (STD) in New Testament exegesis from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium (2003). He is a Professor at the University of San Francisco where he teaches primarily in the areas of New Testament and Christian Mysticism in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. He has published and presented internationally in the areas of New Testament, christology, the Patristic doctrine of deification (theosis), contemplative Christian spirituality, inter-faith dialogue, same-gender marriage and Christian theological responses to the climate crises. In April 2018 he published his second book, Contemplating Christ: The Gospels and the Interior Life.

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.