We're calling this our "Franciscan Fall" because all the speakers belong to the Franciscan religious order. All meetings are held from 2-4 p.m. on the third Sundays of September, October and November in the Immaculate Conception Church Rectory Assembly (the lower hall of the rectory next door to the church), 7211 W. Talcott (at Harlem) in Chicago. The church is less than a half mile north of the Kennedy Express (I-90) Harlem exit in the Norwood Park neighborhood. Signs will be posted, and there is ample free parking. Presentations are followed by a question & answer period. Freewill donation (suggested amount, $6). Refreshments provided. For more information or to RSVP, contact Chapter Coordinator Mike Brennan at 773-447-3989.
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| Sr. Margaret Guider, OSF |
"The Beginning of Love": Thomas Merton's Influence on the Evolution of Women's Spiritual Consciousness, with Sr. Margaret Guider, OSF
In the late 1960’s, Merton, like many others, began to reflect on women’s roles. His reflections focused on the situation of women religious, and in conferences and retreats in Kentucky and California he talked about “the feminine mystique.” At Gethsemani in May 1968 he challenged the male and female stereotypes. Women are not “passive” and “mysterious.” Stereotypes of gender and race are “not true” (Springs of Contemplation, 162). “I think you have an absolute duty to rebel, for the good of the Church itself. Otherwise, you are creating and perpetuating this image of the mysterious, veiled, hidden woman who is an ‘enclosed-garden.’ The truth is not that there’s all this ‘femininity’ locked up in the convent. The truth is that there are people loving God” (163). In the beginning, religious life was “a real liberation” for women, “a chance to be a person,” but that no longer was the case (164). Merton was only beginning to work out the ideas expressed here. One wonders what he would say about women today.
– Christine M. Bochen, The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia (541).
Sr. Margaret is one who wonders. She once wrote a paper on “Merton’s Subterranean Feminism,” and in this talk offers an expansive view of Merton’s contribution to the development of women’s spiritual consciousness.
Merton’s prophetic and inspiring perspectives on the Church, social justice, war and peace, ecology, monasticism and interfaith dialogue are well known. Less well known and appreciated are his views on the vital role of women in the Church and in the world. It is a real privilege for the Chicago Chapter-ITMS to welcome Sr. Margaret to our first meeting of the fall. Please join us for this timely and insightful talk.
Sister Margaret Guider, OSF, is a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate and the congregation’s vice president and councilor for mission. She lectures widely and, in recent years, has been noted for her work on intercultural communication, racism and racial privilege, the Franciscan missionary charism, and consecrated life in the context of a world church. A gifted scholar and author, she is an Associate Professor of theology at Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, and author of Daughters of Rahab: Prostitution and the Church of Liberation in Brazil (Fortress, 1996) and editor of Doing What Is Ours to Do: A Clarian Theology of Life (Franciscan Institute, 2000). She is the past-president of the American Society of Missiology and has served as an advisor to missionary societies, religious congregations, and Catholic institutions. She gave one of the main talks for the U.S. Catholic Mission Association’s 2003 conference, “Mission and Transformation: Our Mission of Solidarity in a Globalized World.” Her teaching interests include World Christianity and Mission Studies, Contextual Theologies, Mariology, and Contemporary Issues in Religion, Culture & Society. Current research focuses on the Church in Brazil, the contemporary relevance of the Franciscan theological tradition for Christian life and practice, and Consecrated Life in the 21st Century. You can view a recent talk by Sr. Margaret given last April at Marquette University: http://www.marquette.edu/umi/grants.shtml
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| Daniel Horan OFM |
“Thomas Merton the ‘Dunce’: Identity, Incarnation and the Not So Subtle Influence of John Duns Scotus,” with Daniel P. Horan, OFM
The influence of key figures in the early life of Thomas Merton, such as the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins and Columbia University professor Daniel Walsh, has been observed and studied for many decades. However, there is a significant thread of theological and philosophical contiguous insight that has been largely overlooked, both in its direct influence and its more indirect or subtle influence through these two intellectual and spiritual guides. The missing link of continuity is the medieval Franciscan thinker John Duns Scotus. Renown for his theological and philosophical originality, his logical and nuanced approach to complicated metaphysical questions and his difficult-to-penetrate work, Scotus – known as the Subtle Doctor – was a thinker that captured the attention of the young Thomas Merton and remained present in the background of his thought and writings until his death. This lecture will present two major themes in the writing of Merton in light of their resemblance and likely indebtedness to the original work of John Duns Scotus; namely, the True Self and the Incarnation. In addition to being another infrequently considered dimension of Merton’s Franciscan impulse, the influence of Scotus in the 20th Century monk’s work can help us appreciate Merton’s innovative spirituality even more. Perhaps like Merton we too can be numbered among the dunces of history, that is, in its original meaning – a follower of the school of Scotus. – Daniel Horan, OFM
Dan Horan is a Franciscan friar of Holy Name Province (NY) and a member of both the International Thomas Merton Society and the Thomas Merton Society of Great Britain and Ireland. A former Daggy Scholar, he is a graduate of St. Bonaventure University (NY) and the Washington Theological Union (DC). His work has been published in journals such as America, The Merton Annual, The Merton Journal (UK), The Merton Seasonal, Heythrop Journal, Review for Religious, Spiritual Life, The Cord and others. He has delivered papers at the general meeting for the Thomas Merton Society of Great Britain and Ireland as well as the Eleventh Conference of the International Thomas Merton Society (2009). He has also delivered invited public lectures on Merton in Boston and Washington, DC. Dan will begin teaching in the Department of Religious Studies at Siena College (NY) in Fall 2010. It is a privilege for the Chicago Chapter-ITMS to offer this presentation by an outstanding young Merton scholar.
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| Fr. Albert Hasse, OFM |
“Overcoming the Seduction of the False Self,” with Fr. Albert Haase, OFM
A central theme that weaves its way through Thomas Merton’s writings is that sanctity consists in discovering our true identity. The essence of the spiritual quest is our search for our true, or real, self. In an early work (1949) he writes, “For me to be saint means to be myself. Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem of finding out who I am and of discovering my true self” (Seeds of Contemplation, 26). In the same chapter he identifies what is at the heart of the problem of discovering one’s true identity: “every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false self” (28). Thus, very early in his writings, Merton introduces two terms (that will recur repeatedly in his later writings) that we must understand if we are to grasp what he has to say about the achievement of personal identity. The goal in the quest for self-identity is the “true self”; the villain who obstructs the way is “the false self….” He does not, it seems, intend primarily to see the false self as “false” in a moral sense, as if the false self were untruthful, sinful, immoral. No doubt it can, and perhaps often does, have that meaning. But such a meaning is derivative and does not catch the primary sense in which he uses the term “false self.” Merton is thinking more in ontological terms. This is to say that the adjective “false” conveys the notion of unsubstantiality, of lacking in any fullness of being. The false self is deficient in being – deficient in the sense that it is impermanent, not enduring….The false self is a self of changing emotions – now up, now down. It exists not at any deep level of reality, but only in our egocentric desires: the desire to manipulate, to be recognized, to be praised, to possess, to accumulate. “The tragedy of a life centered on ‘things,’ on the grasping and manipulation of objects, is that such a life closes the ego upon itself, as though it were an end in itself, and throws it into a hopeless struggle with other perverse and hostile selves competing together for the possession, which will given them power and satisfaction” (Birds of Appetite, 82). Such a false self has no voice of its own; it speaks the voice of the anonymous collectivity. In our time the media generally are the source from which it derives its judgments and opinions. It has objectified itself; that is, it has made itself into an object that can be talked about and described. This means that it has lost touch with its own subjectivity and therefore, quite literally, does not (and cannot ever) know itself….Life’s most pressing task is to unmask this false, illusory self and become “aware of the presence within us of a disturbing stranger, the self that is both ‘I’ and someone else. The self that is not entirely welcome in his own house because he is so different from the everyday character that we have constructed out of our dealings with others – and our infidelities to ourselves.” – William H. Shannon, The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia (417-418)
So how does one overcome this powerful seduction in a culture that often seems dedicated to promoting superficiality, celebrity, and an endless procession of titillating distractions? A culture in which every egocentric desire, especially the accumulation of possessions, is enshrined? Fr. Albert Haase has been pondering these questions for some time, and offers his timely perspectives. Ordained a Franciscan priest in 1983, Fr. Albert is a popular preacher, teacher, spiritual director and radio personality. A former missionary to mainland China for over eleven years, he is the author of five books on popular spirituality. Fr. Albert is the director of the International Institute for Clergy Formation based at Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ. He is also the co-host of Spirit and Life, a radio show heard every weekend on the Relevant Radio Network, Baraga Broadcasting and The Presence Radio Network. Copies of his latest book, THIS SACRED MOMENT: Becoming Holy Right Where You Are will be available for purchase (no checks, cash only please), and Fr. Albert has will be happy to sign copies during the break and following the question & answer period.
Visit his web site at www.AlbertOFM.org – and read Fr. Albert’s article on Spiritual Direction in the November, 2007, issue of St. Anthony Messenger Magazine at:
http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Nov2007/Feature2.asp
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