Ninth Annual Symposium on Benedictine Spirituality
Thomas Merton's Monastic Wisdom for These Times
Saturday February 20, 2021
10:00 a.m. - Noon Symposium
Location: Zoom - - Event log-in information will be emailed prior to the Symposium; Please email [email protected] with your name and preferred email address to register.
Speaker: Bonnie Thurston - - Award-winning poet, author, retired Pittsburgh Theological Seminary William F. Orr professor, ordained minister, spiritual director and retreat leader.
Bonnie Thurston has delved deeply into the work and life example of Thomas Merton. She wrote her doctoral dissertation on Thomas Merton, and is particularly interested in his poetry and in his inter-religious thought. She was a founding member of the International Thomas Merton Society, served as its third president, and received a "Louie" award for service to the Society. She has written over fifty articles or contributions to books on Merton, and has led retreats and lectured on Merton widely in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Europe. She edited Thomas Merton and Buddhism (Fons Vitae Press, 2007), Hidden in the Same Mystery: Thomas Merton & Loretto (Fons Vitae, 2010), and Thomas Merton on Eastern Meditation (New Directions, 2012). In 2020, her latest work, Shaped by the End You Live For: Thomas Merton's Monastic Spirituality, was published by Liturgical Press. Her work on Merton has been translated into Dutch, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish.
Thomas Merton is a figure we invoke because he is a contemplative monk and an engaged and often prophetic voice for tumultuous times. His understanding of wisdom is that it is the quality that helps us resolve "the apparent opposition" of action and contemplation, of involvement and detachment. Merton rails against the "senseless, wasteful" neglect of our own being. We need his wisdom today.
Please join us! To register, email [email protected] with your name and preferred email address.
The Friends of Saint Benedict is an ecumenical, non-profit organization that organizes pilgrimages, lectures and study groups to make the wisdom and practice of St. Benedict accessible and useful to modern men and women. The Annual Symposium on Benedictine Spirituality offers insights from monastics and scholars, in an atmosphere of discourse, hospitality and community.
10:00 a.m. - Noon Symposium
Location: Zoom - - Event log-in information will be emailed prior to the Symposium; Please email [email protected] with your name and preferred email address to register.
Speaker: Bonnie Thurston - - Award-winning poet, author, retired Pittsburgh Theological Seminary William F. Orr professor, ordained minister, spiritual director and retreat leader.
Bonnie Thurston has delved deeply into the work and life example of Thomas Merton. She wrote her doctoral dissertation on Thomas Merton, and is particularly interested in his poetry and in his inter-religious thought. She was a founding member of the International Thomas Merton Society, served as its third president, and received a "Louie" award for service to the Society. She has written over fifty articles or contributions to books on Merton, and has led retreats and lectured on Merton widely in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Europe. She edited Thomas Merton and Buddhism (Fons Vitae Press, 2007), Hidden in the Same Mystery: Thomas Merton & Loretto (Fons Vitae, 2010), and Thomas Merton on Eastern Meditation (New Directions, 2012). In 2020, her latest work, Shaped by the End You Live For: Thomas Merton's Monastic Spirituality, was published by Liturgical Press. Her work on Merton has been translated into Dutch, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish.
Thomas Merton is a figure we invoke because he is a contemplative monk and an engaged and often prophetic voice for tumultuous times. His understanding of wisdom is that it is the quality that helps us resolve "the apparent opposition" of action and contemplation, of involvement and detachment. Merton rails against the "senseless, wasteful" neglect of our own being. We need his wisdom today.
Please join us! To register, email [email protected] with your name and preferred email address.
The Friends of Saint Benedict is an ecumenical, non-profit organization that organizes pilgrimages, lectures and study groups to make the wisdom and practice of St. Benedict accessible and useful to modern men and women. The Annual Symposium on Benedictine Spirituality offers insights from monastics and scholars, in an atmosphere of discourse, hospitality and community.
LocationZoom - - Your log-in information will be emailed to you prior to the February 20, 2021 Symposium
Watch on YouTube ScheduleSaturday, February 20, 2021:
10:00 a.m. - Noon: Bonnie Thurston's Lecture, followed by Quiet Time, then Discussion & Audience Questions |
RegistrationEmail [email protected] with your name and preferred email address.
You will receive the Zoom Symposium log-in information prior to the February 20, 2021 Symposium. There will be no charge for participation in this year's Symposium. In lieu of a fee, please consider making a contribution to a Benedictine or other monastic community. Please contact the Registrar with any questions, either by texting/calling 202-460-2877 or by emailing [email protected]. |
Program
Thomas Merton’s Monastic Wisdom for These Times
Friends of St. Benedict 9th Annual Symposium: February 20, 2021; 10:00 a.m. (EST)
WATCH ON YOUTUBE
(Note: Talk lengths are approximate. Talks and Q & A will begin promptly.)
10:00 a.m. Introduction
10:10 - ca 10:40 Talk #1:
What Merton meant by “monk”
Ora et Labora: balancing prayer and work
10:40 - 11:00 Contemplative Time/Comfort Break
~ How enmeshed am I in “the way things are”?
~In what ways am I a “marginal person”? Or not?
~What percentage of my day is taken up with work?
Rest/Leisure? Prayer/Spiritual Reading? Sleep?
Be honest.
~How do I “channel God” to others? (Yes. You do.)
11:00 - 11:30 Talk #2:
Ora et Labora (continued)
Cultivating Silence and Solitude: Means Not Ends
Silence isn’t always external
Solitude isn’t always geographic
11:30 - 11:50 Contemplative Time/Comfort Break
~What have I “taken on” that I don’t really have to do? Why?
~What do I do that is genuinely restful/restorative?
~What is my relationship with silence? Listening?
~What has “Covid time” taught me about solitude?
11:50 - 12:20 p.m. Q & A
12:20 p.m. Closing remarks
Bonnie Thurston's Recommended Reading for the 9th Annual Symposium (click on the title for more info and to purchase):
Thomas Merton, Basic Principles of Monastic Spirituality (Templegate Pub; Revised edition, 1997)
The Climate of Monastic Prayer (Liturgical Press, 2018)
Contemplation in a World of Action (Doubleday, 1971)
Thoughts in Solitude (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999)
Wisdom of the Desert (New Directions, 1960)
Michael Casey, OCSO, Strangers to the City: Reflections on the Beliefs and Values of the Rule of Saint
Benedict (Paraclete Press, 2013/2018)
Patrick Hart, OCSO, A Monastic Vision for the 21st Century (Cistercian Publications, 2006)
Bonnie Thurston, Shaped by the End You Live For: Thomas Merton’s Monastic Spirituality (Liturgical
Press, 2020)
Esther de Waal, Seeking God the Way of St. Benedict (Liturgical Press, 1984)
Writings - Bonnie Thurston
Shaped by the End You Live For: Thomas Merton's Monastic Spirituality (Liturgical Press, 2020)
Hidden In God: Discovering the Desert Vision of Charles de Foucauld (Ave Maria Press, 2016)
Women in the New Testament (Wipf and Stock, 2004)
The Spiritual Landscape of Mark (Liturgical Press; Illustrated edition, 2008)
To Everything A Season: A Spirituality of Time (Wipf and Stock, 2004 - paperback)
Maverick Mark: The Untamed First Gospel (Liturgical Press, 2013)
Belonging to Borders: A Sojourn in the Celtic Tradition (Liturgical Press, 2011)
Sacra Pagina: Philippians and Philemon (Liturgical Press, 2009)
Practicing Silence: New and Selected Verses (Paraclete Press, 2014)
Religious Vows, The Sermon On the Mount and Christian Living (Liturgical Press, 2006)
Preaching Mark (Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 2001)
For God Alone: A Primer on Prayer (University of Notre Dame Press, 2009): A Biblical Reflection on Expr
O Taste and See: A Biblical Reflection on Experiencing God (Paraclete Press, 2013)
Reading Colossians, Ephesians, and 2 Thessalonians: A Literary and Theological Commentary (Reading the New Testament) (Smyth & Helwys Publishing, 1995)
The Widows: A Women's Ministry in the Early Church (Fortress Press; 1st edition, 1999)
A Place to Pay Attention (Cinnamon Press, 2014)
All the Fullness of God: The Christ of Colossians (Cascade Books, 2017)Three Peaks Press; 1st edition (October 1, 2001)
The Heart's Lands (Three Peaks Press; 1st edition, 2001)
The Spiritual Life of the Early Church (Fortress Press, 1993)
Wait Here and Watch: A Commentary on the Passion of St. Matthew (Wipf and Stock, 2004)
Hidden in the Same Mystery: Thomas Merton and Loretto ( Fons Vitae, 2010)Fairacres Publications SLG Press: January 2016
Monastic Life: A Sign of Contradiction to the Fashionable Idols (Fairacres Publications SLG Press, 2016)
Pondering, Praying, Preaching Romans 8 (SLG Press, 2019)
Lazarus, Come Out! (Fairacres Publishing 2017)
Fruit of the Spirit: Growth of the Heart (Liturgical Press, 2000)
Friends of St. Benedict 9th Annual Symposium: February 20, 2021; 10:00 a.m. (EST)
WATCH ON YOUTUBE
(Note: Talk lengths are approximate. Talks and Q & A will begin promptly.)
10:00 a.m. Introduction
10:10 - ca 10:40 Talk #1:
What Merton meant by “monk”
Ora et Labora: balancing prayer and work
10:40 - 11:00 Contemplative Time/Comfort Break
~ How enmeshed am I in “the way things are”?
~In what ways am I a “marginal person”? Or not?
~What percentage of my day is taken up with work?
Rest/Leisure? Prayer/Spiritual Reading? Sleep?
Be honest.
~How do I “channel God” to others? (Yes. You do.)
11:00 - 11:30 Talk #2:
Ora et Labora (continued)
Cultivating Silence and Solitude: Means Not Ends
Silence isn’t always external
Solitude isn’t always geographic
11:30 - 11:50 Contemplative Time/Comfort Break
~What have I “taken on” that I don’t really have to do? Why?
~What do I do that is genuinely restful/restorative?
~What is my relationship with silence? Listening?
~What has “Covid time” taught me about solitude?
11:50 - 12:20 p.m. Q & A
12:20 p.m. Closing remarks
Bonnie Thurston's Recommended Reading for the 9th Annual Symposium (click on the title for more info and to purchase):
Thomas Merton, Basic Principles of Monastic Spirituality (Templegate Pub; Revised edition, 1997)
The Climate of Monastic Prayer (Liturgical Press, 2018)
Contemplation in a World of Action (Doubleday, 1971)
Thoughts in Solitude (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999)
Wisdom of the Desert (New Directions, 1960)
Michael Casey, OCSO, Strangers to the City: Reflections on the Beliefs and Values of the Rule of Saint
Benedict (Paraclete Press, 2013/2018)
Patrick Hart, OCSO, A Monastic Vision for the 21st Century (Cistercian Publications, 2006)
Bonnie Thurston, Shaped by the End You Live For: Thomas Merton’s Monastic Spirituality (Liturgical
Press, 2020)
Esther de Waal, Seeking God the Way of St. Benedict (Liturgical Press, 1984)
Writings - Bonnie Thurston
Shaped by the End You Live For: Thomas Merton's Monastic Spirituality (Liturgical Press, 2020)
Hidden In God: Discovering the Desert Vision of Charles de Foucauld (Ave Maria Press, 2016)
Women in the New Testament (Wipf and Stock, 2004)
The Spiritual Landscape of Mark (Liturgical Press; Illustrated edition, 2008)
To Everything A Season: A Spirituality of Time (Wipf and Stock, 2004 - paperback)
Maverick Mark: The Untamed First Gospel (Liturgical Press, 2013)
Belonging to Borders: A Sojourn in the Celtic Tradition (Liturgical Press, 2011)
Sacra Pagina: Philippians and Philemon (Liturgical Press, 2009)
Practicing Silence: New and Selected Verses (Paraclete Press, 2014)
Religious Vows, The Sermon On the Mount and Christian Living (Liturgical Press, 2006)
Preaching Mark (Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 2001)
For God Alone: A Primer on Prayer (University of Notre Dame Press, 2009): A Biblical Reflection on Expr
O Taste and See: A Biblical Reflection on Experiencing God (Paraclete Press, 2013)
Reading Colossians, Ephesians, and 2 Thessalonians: A Literary and Theological Commentary (Reading the New Testament) (Smyth & Helwys Publishing, 1995)
The Widows: A Women's Ministry in the Early Church (Fortress Press; 1st edition, 1999)
A Place to Pay Attention (Cinnamon Press, 2014)
All the Fullness of God: The Christ of Colossians (Cascade Books, 2017)Three Peaks Press; 1st edition (October 1, 2001)
The Heart's Lands (Three Peaks Press; 1st edition, 2001)
The Spiritual Life of the Early Church (Fortress Press, 1993)
Wait Here and Watch: A Commentary on the Passion of St. Matthew (Wipf and Stock, 2004)
Hidden in the Same Mystery: Thomas Merton and Loretto ( Fons Vitae, 2010)Fairacres Publications SLG Press: January 2016
Monastic Life: A Sign of Contradiction to the Fashionable Idols (Fairacres Publications SLG Press, 2016)
Pondering, Praying, Preaching Romans 8 (SLG Press, 2019)
Lazarus, Come Out! (Fairacres Publishing 2017)
Fruit of the Spirit: Growth of the Heart (Liturgical Press, 2000)