What Would Thomas Merton Tweet: Finding spiritual intimacy in a socially distant world

ON-DEMAND WEBINAR
What Would Thomas Merton Tweet: Finding spiritual intimacy in a socially distant world
with Daniel P. Horan, OFM, PhD

While not quite a Luddite, Thomas Merton was known to be skeptical of certain technological advances that were too quickly and too uncritically embraced in the middle of the twentieth century. Merton long discussed the inherent interrelatedness that we share as part of the human family, despite apparent differences and divisions. Yet, he rightly criticized those communications media that promise instant proximity while nevertheless increasing societal divides.

Though he died long before the public advent of the Internet or social media, Merton’s spiritual wisdom and healthy incredulity about blindly embracing technology lend us insight for our digital age.

This presentation focuses on how Merton’s writings might provide us with insight in navigating our complex contemporary world, seeking authentic intimacy with God, one another, and all creation today.

Daniel P. Horan, OFM, is the Duns Scotus Chair of Spirituality at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, where he teaches systematic theology and spirituality. He is a Franciscan priest and a frequent lecturer and retreat director around the United States and abroad. Horan is a columnist for National Catholic Reporter, and the author of twelve books including The Franciscan Heart of Thomas Merton: A New Look at the Spiritual Influence on his Life, Thought, and Writing (2014). Horan has a podcast called “The Francis Effect,” a podcast about culture and politics from a Catholic perspective. He also has a YouTube channel including several videos on Thomas Merton.

Note: The recording can be accessed by purchasing a ticket below. Once you have a ticket and are signed in, you will be able to view the recording on this page.

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You never come to the bottom, do you? How do you come to the bottom of coming to know God? God is so big that you just come to know different things about God all the time. As you learn more about the world you learn more about God.

Margaret Brennan, IHM, in a voice recording on September 15, 2015

To resist evil and violence both within and outside us is to acknowledge ourselves as purposeful agents of salvation, and of responsibility, to ourselves and others, capable of moral discernment, courage, creativity and solidarity.

Margaret Brennan, IHM, in What Was There For Me Once: A Memoir (2009, p. 79)

Spirituality is what our faith looks like in everyday life. Spirituality is about getting to the bottom of our restlessness. It is here that God comes. It is here where God is.

Margaret Brennan, IHM (Presentation at the Summer Pastoral Theological Institute at St. John Center for Youth and Family in Plymouth, Mich., on Aug. 12, 1999)

Prayer for me, then, has been an entering into my own heart and experience and finding its meaning in the experience of Jesus and of his Mother who is the perfect Christian and faith-filled believer.

Margaret Brennan, IHM, in New Catholic World (Jan/Feb 1977, p. 21)

Spirituality is the capacity to live deeply in the concrete, creative order of things even as we stretch through and beyond them.

Margaret Brennan, IHM, in Compass: A Jesuit Journal (Sept/Oct 1994, p. 19)

I grew into a great love of the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ and of the liturgy, through which the life of the Church is most deeply expressed.

Margaret Brennan, IHM, in What Was There For Me Once: A Memoir (2009, p. 45)

Prayer is … the challenge to find Jesus, to respond to him, to rejoice in his goodness, and mercy, and tender love … in the encounters of every day and in the challenging, often ambiguous signs of our times.

Margaret Brennan, IHM, in New Catholic World (Jan/Feb 1977, p. 21)

The experience of God and ways of knowing the holy are the same as our mode of knowing all other things. And that mode is sensuality.

Margaret Brennan, IHM, in Compass: A Jesuit Journal (Sept/Oct 1994, p. 18)

When both our light and our darkness are integrated then our inner and outer lives are integrated. Losing ourselves and then finding ourselves again is the pattern of our journey through life.

Margaret Brennan, IHM, at St. Paul’s Retreat Center (May 11, 2009)