Merton scholar to present 2017 Aquinas Lecture, workshop

Friday, Dec. 16, 2016

SALT LAKE CITY — Thomas Merton, whom Pope Francis referred to as a “source of spiritual inspiration” and “a promoter of peace between peoples and religions,” will be the focus of a workshop given in conjunction with the 2017 Aquinas Lecture at Saint Catherine of Siena Newman Center in Salt Lake City.

An American Trappist monk who wrote several popular spiritual works, Merton is perhaps best known for his autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, which describes his conversion to Catholicism. However, in the 1950s and ’60s he wrote more than 60 other books.

The workshop, “Discovering Ourselves and God: Reflecting on Contemplation and Action with Thomas Merton” will be given by Daniel P. Horan, OFM.

Fr. Horan is a Franciscan friar of Holy Name Province who serves on the board of directors for the International Thomas Merton Society. He also is a theology professor at the Catholic Theological Union and author of several books, including The Franciscan Heart of Thomas Merton: A New Look at the Spiritual Influence on his Life, Thought, and Writing. He has lectured and served as a retreat director around the United States, Canada and Europe.

Since Pope Francis mentioned Merton in his address last year to the U.S. Congress, there has been a resurgence of interest in the monk, Fr. Horan said. The workshop will focus on Merton as a model for contemplation and action, particularly on how to “build bridges to bring people together,” he said.

Fr. Horan also will emphasize Merton in the 2017 Aquinas Lecture, which has the title “Learning From Thomas Merton about Laudato Si’.”

Laudato Si’ is the name of the 2015 encyclical by Pope Francis. With the subtitle “On Care for Our Common Home,” the encyclical “talks about the need for ecological conversion,” said Fr. Horan, who has created a series of YouTube videos about the document. 

Merton is a good interpreter for the encyclical, which “doesn’t always spell out what process of ecological conversion would be. ... I believe that Thomas Merton actually provides us with a good model for what that ecological conversion looks like,” Fr. Horan said.

 The lecture will be geared for a general audience and discuss a Christian response to the environmental crisis, Fr. Horan said.

Because of his expertise in these areas, the Franciscan friar was at the top of the list as the committee that organizes the Aquinas Lecture considered speakers for the 2017 event, said Brandon R. Peterson, a member of the committee.

Having the 2017 Aquinas Lecture focus on care for the environment and related social justice issues is timely, because many young adults seem particularly tuned into those themes, Peterson said. 

It also is of interest “to the wider Utah community as a whole, given our geographical features and the challenges that we face with emissions and air quality,” Peterson said.

In general, the Aquinas lecture is meant to “provide the community with an opportunity to engage a scholarly figure in theology and philosophy that can speak to challenges of our present time but within the heritage of the Catholic intellectual tradition that carries on the approach and the work of Thomas Aquinas, who drew on the riches of the Catholic tradition that preceded him but also put it in dialog with the best scholarship and questions of his own day,” he said.

 

WHAT: Workshop – “Discovering Ourselves and God:

                 Reflecting on Contemplation and Action 

                 with Thomas Merton”

WHEN: Saturday, Jan. 28, noon-5 p.m.

WHERE: Wasatch Retreat & Conference Center

                     (Episcopal Center), 75200 East, SLC

COST: $30 regular, $15 students

Register via PayPal or at the St. Catherine of Siena parish office, weekdays, 9 a.m.–3 p.m. Registration deadline is Jan. 25. 

For information, visit http://stcatherineslc.org/retreat/ or call 801-359-6066. 

 

WHAT: 2017 Aquinas Lecture –  “Learning From 

                 Thomas Merton about Laudato Si’”

WHEN: Sunday, Jan. 29, 12:30 p.m. 

WHERE: St. Catherine of Siena Newman Center

                     170 University St., SLC

Free and open to the public.