The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

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.

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Upcoming Tuesdays with Merton

Fr. WILLIAM HART McNICHOLS & CHRISTOPHER PRAMUK

Offering Christ to a Broken World: Merton’s Advent Tidings of Great Joy.

“Into this world, this demented inn, in which there is no room for him at all, Christ has come uninvited.”

December 10, 2024, 7 PM. EST

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In this presentation on the anniversary of Thomas Merton’s death, iconographer Fr. Bill McNichols and theologian Christopher Pramuk reflect on the power of sacred art to quicken the hope of Advent in our hearts, and to bring the creativity and courage of love into “this demented inn,” where Christ “has come uninvited.” Their book together, All My Eyes See: The Artistic Vocation of Fr. William Hart McNichols, has been described as “incandescent,” an “intimate conversation between two soul friends,” which “not only preserves the legacy of a hidden master, but also contributes to the awakening of the world.”  

Ordained in 1979, Fr. William Hart McNichols was a member of the Society of Jesus from 1968-2002. He received a Master of Fine Arts from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, and from 1983 to 1990 he worked in AIDS hospice ministry in Manhattan, while continuing to paint and illustrating many children’s books. In 1990 he moved to Albuquerque, NM, to study with master iconographer Br. Robert Lentz; he continues to serve the people of God as a priest in northern New Mexico.

Christopher Pramuk is Regis University Chair of Ignatian Thought and Imagination, and professor of theology at Regis University, Denver, CO. A past President of the ITMS, his seven books include two award-winning studies of Thomas Merton, the first of which sparked his long friendship with Fr. Bill.

ABBI FRASIER

Merton in the Maryhouse Kitchen.

January 14, 2025, 7 PM. EST

An excerpt from Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander lives as permanently as can be on the door entering the dining room in Maryhouse, one of the New York Catholic Worker houses of hospitality. In this personal talk, I hope to explore what it meant to read Merton in the context of living at a Catholic Worker house, and how I believe the Worker and Merton hold the tension of guilt and faithful living in a world inundated with violence.

Abbi Fraser, the child of two Protestant pastors, got her BA in Public Affairs from UCLA and instantly dove into the world of the Catholic Worker. Abbi loves talking about God and finds Them most in her friends, protests, and the park.

ROSE MARIE BERGER

The Church has No Weapons: Merton's Influence on Catholic Nonviolence.

February 11, 2025, 7 PM. EST



In this presentation to celebrate the launch of the Catholic Institute for Nonviolence in Rome in September 2024, Sojourners senior editor Rose Marie Berger reflects on what led up to the launch of the Institute, what moral and theological questions top the Institute's research agenda, and what comes next for this tremendous new resource available to the global Church and beyond. Merton's own thinking and prayer on war and peace opened the way for the maturing of Catholic nonviolence as it is understood today. The launch of the Catholic Institute for Nonviolence is another dynamic experiment in Merton's thoughts on how the Church's "wars are fought without any weapons at all."

Rose Marie Berger is a Catholic peace activist and poet. She is senior editor at Sojourners magazine, an ecumenical Christian magazine promoting faith and social justice, where she has worked since 1986. Rose’s work in Christian nonviolence has taken her to conflict zones around the world. She is active in the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative, a project of Pax Christi International, and served as co-editor for Advancing Nonviolence and Just Peace in the Church and the World, the fruit of a multiyear, global, participatory process to deepen Catholic understanding of and commitment to Gospel nonviolence. She serves on the board of The International Thomas Merton Society.

2025 FOURTH AND WALNUT LECTURE

JAMES FINLEY

Being A Healing Presence in a Wounded and Traumatized World

March 18, 2025, 7 PM. EST

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.

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For Further Details go to: TWM - Archive

 

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