Dr Esther de Waal
Esther de Waal lives in a small cottage on the Welsh/English border. After studying and teaching history at Cambridge University, she married, had four sons, and moved to Canterbury, where she lived in a house that had been part of the medieval monastic community. She leads retreats, lectures, and travels widely. Her major interests are the fields of the Benedictine and Celtic traditions.
Dr de Waal gave the first talk in our series on 23 June 2007. She spoke on Contemplative Living in Today's World: an exploration of Benedictine and Celtic spirituality and its value for life in the modern world. Taking the two great dimensions of Time and Space, she invited us to consider the ways in which Benedict's Rule can guide us towards harmony and balance in our use of time; and she described the way in which the cloister and its garden can symbolise both outer and inner space. An edited version of her talk is available here.
She also opened our second series, on 25 October 2008, with the first of two talks intended to mark the 40th anniversary of the death of Fr Thomas Merton. A summary of her talk, entitled Thomas Merton and the Camera as a Tool for Contemplation, will be added to our Archive as soon as possible.
Her many books include: Seeking God: the Way of St Benedict; Living with Contradiction: Benedictine Wisdom for Everyday Living; A Life-giving Way: a Commentary on the Rule of St Benedict; The Celtic Way of Prayer; World Made Whole: Rediscovering the Celtic Tradition; A Seven Day Journey with Thomas Merton, and The Extraordinary in the Ordinary.
Fr Laurence Freeman OSB
Born in London in 1951, Fr. Laurence Freeman OSB was taught meditation by John Main, and became his successor. Fr. Laurence is the spiritual guide of The World Community for Christian Meditation, and a Benedictine monk. He leads retreats and seminars worldwide, and nurtures interfaith understanding. His books include Jesus – the Teacher Within, Light Within, The Selfless Self, Web of Silence and Common Ground.
A summary of the talk Fr Laurence gave in our first season, The One-ness of Silence, based on notes taken by a member of the Silence in the City team, is available here.
Fr Richard Rohr OFM
Fr Richard Rohr is a Franciscan of the New Mexico Province. He was the founder of the New Jerusalem Community in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1971, and the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1986, where he presently serves as Founding Director.
He was born in 1943 in Kansas. He entered the Franciscans in 1961 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1970. He received his Master's Degree in Theology from Dayton that same year. He now lives in a hermitage behind his Franciscan community in Albuquerque, and divides his time between local work, and preaching and teaching on all continents. He considers the proclamation of the Gospel to be his primary call, and uses many different platforms to communicate that message. Scripture as liberation, the integration of action and contemplation, community building, peace and justice issues, male spirituality, the enneagram, and eco-spirituality would all be themes that he addresses in service of the Gospel.
He is probably best known for his numerous audio and video tapes, and through the Center's publication, Radical Grace. He is a regular contributing editor/writer for Sojourners magazine and recently published a 7-part Lenten Series for the National Catholic Reporter.
A recording of his talk, What the Silnce Reveals: the peace and struggle of contemplative prayer, given in London on 9 December 2007, is available here. His second talk, The Conwsequences of the Contemplative Heart, given on 26 Auguist 2010, was also recorded, and will shortly be available from the same source.
Check the Mustard Seed Resource Center for all Fr. Richard's works.
Dr Cynthia Bourgeault
The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Bourgeault is an author, lecturer, hermit, and scholar. She is also a retreat and conference leader, teacher of prayer, writer on the spiritual life, and Episcopal priest. Passionately committed to the recovery of the Christian contemplative path, she has worked closely with Fr Thomas Keating and Fr Bruno Barnhart and other Christian contemplative masters. She has studied Sufism, the teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff, and the inner traditions of Christianity. And when she isn't teaching Centering Prayer or giving lectures around the world, she spends half the year in the solitude of a Trappist hermitage on Eagle Island, Maine. She is the author of Mystical Hope, The Wisdom Way of Knowing, Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, Chanting the Psalms, The Wisdom Way of Knowing, Love is Stronger than Death--and forthcoming --The Wisdom Jesus, and many articles on the contemplative life.
A recording of her talk, Putting on the Mind of Christ, given in London on 20 May 2008, is available on CD and can be ordered here.
Cynthia is (Feb 2010) contributing to an e-course on Interspiritual Wisdom with representatives of other faiths. Details are here.
Jean Vanier
Jean Vanier is the founder of l’Arche, an international organization that creates communities where people with learning disabilities and those who assist them share life together.
The son of Georges Vanier, Governor General of Canada, he was born in Geneva in 1928. After service in both the Royal Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy, and looking for deeper meaning in his life, in 1950 he resigned his commission to pursue studies in France where he received a PhD from L'Institut Catholique de Paris for his thesis on Aristotle.
In 1964, through his friendship with a Dominican priest Father Thomas Philippe, he became aware of the plight of thousands of people institutionalized with learning disabilities. He felt led by God to invite two men, Raphael Simi and Philippe Seux, to leave the institutions where they resided and share their lives with him in a real home in Trosly-Breuil, France. He named their home L'Arche, meaning "the ark". From this original community in France, 130 other communities have been founded throughout the world.
Although L'Arche communities are found in many different cultures and reflect the ethnic and religious composition of the locales in which they exist, they share a common philosophy and approach. The goal of L'Arche is to bring together people with developmental disabilities and those who assist them to live and work to create homes, recognizing one another’s unique value and gifts.
In 1964, inspired by his belief that community can change the world, Jean Vanier founded Faith and Sharing, a worldwide movement of annual retreats where people from all walks of life are welcome. In 1971, he co-founded Faith and Light with Marie Hélène Mathieu. Faith and Light groups, composed of people with developmental disabilities, their family and friends, meet regularly to discuss hopes and difficulties and to pray together. Vanier points out that when confronted with human brokenness and weakness, people often find a God whose love is without limitation. Today there are over 1400 Faith and Light communities around the world.
Until the late 1970's, Jean Vanier carried the responsibility for L'Arche in Trosly-Breuil in France and for the International Federation of L'Arche. He stepped down from these responsibilities, to spend more time today counselling, encouraging and accompanying people who come to live in L'Arche as assistants to those with disabilities. He still makes his home in the original community of Trosly-Breuil, France. He also travels widely, visiting other L'Arche communities, encouraging projects for new communities, and giving lectures and retreats.
Jean Vanier has become a leader in consciousness-raising about the suffering of all who are marginalized in our world, the lonely and the dispossessed. He is internationally recognized for his compelling vision of what it means to live a fully human life and for his social and spiritual leadership in building a compassionate society. He has written a number of best-selling books.
A recording of his talk, The Silence of Tenderness, given in London on 7 June 2008, on two CDs, is available here.
James Finley
James Finley PhD has been a student of contemplative prayer for more than 20 years, six of which he spent at the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky, where Thomas Merton was his spiritual director. He 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 with his wife in Santa Monica, California.
His talk, Falling into Silence: an exploration of Thomas Merton's relevance for our time, was the second marking the 40th anniversary of Thomas Merton's death. It was recorded and a CD can be ordered here.
He has written a number of books, including Merton's Palace of Nowhere: a search for God through awareness of the true self;Christian Meditation: Experiencing the Presence of God;
and The Contemplative Heart.
Fr Daniel O'Leary
Daniel O’Leary is a priest, author and teacher in the Diocese of Leeds. As curate and Parish Priest, he has worked in parishes for almost thirty years. He taught theology and religious education in St Mary’s University College in London and became Chair of its Religious Studies Department before being appointed Episcopal Vicar for Christian Formation in Leeds. He holds Masters degrees in theology, spirituality and religious education. Award-winning author of 12 books, he is a regular contributor to the Tablet and the Irish Furrow. Currently he gives conferences and retreats to teachers, catechists, head-teachers, priests and Diocesan RE Advisers around the country. His current passion and project is about the recovery of what is called the sacramental imagination in all our spiritual endeavours – both our inner spiritual work and our many pastoral ministries. Begin with the Heart, book and DVD, is published by Columba Press, 2008.
Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP
Timothy Radcliffe, OP (b. 1945) is a Catholic priest and a Dominican friar, a member of the Dominican Priory at Blackfriars, Oxford. He was Prior Provincial of the English Province and later Master of the Order of Preachers from 1992-2001, the only member of the English Province of the Dominicans to have held the office since the Order's foundation in 1216.
Among his many publications are: Sing a New Song. The Christian Vocation. Dublin: Dominican Publications, 1999. I Call You Friends. London: Continuum, 2001. Seven Last Words. London: Burns & Oates, 2004. What Is the Point of Being A Christian?. London and New York: Burns & Oates, 2005. .Just One Year: Prayer and Worship through the Christian Year, edited by Timothy Radcliffe with Jean Harrison. London: Darton, Longman and Todd for CAFOD and Christian Aid, 2006.
Archbishop Vincent Nichols
Vincent Nichols began as a college chaplain and parish priest in Liverpool, and held a number of educational posts; he was a special adviser to Cardinal Basil Hume, and was given temporary charge of the Westminster diocese on the latter's sudden death in 1999. He became Archbishop of Birmingham, and was appointed to succeed Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor early in 2009. He will open the 3rd season of Silence in the City talks (Thursday 22 October 2009).
Metropolitan Kallistos Ware
Kallistos Ware holds a doctorate in theology from the University of Oxford where from 1966 to 2001 he was Fellow of Pembroke College and Spalding Lecturer in Eastern Orthodox Studies. He is a monk of the monastery of St John the Theologian, Patmos, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1966. In
1982 he became titular bishop of Diokleia and assistant bishop in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain and in 2007 he was raised to the rank of metropolitan. His publications include The Orthodox Church (2nd edn., 1993) and The Orthodox Way (2nd edn., 1995) and he is co-translator of the five-volume Philokalia.
Fr Gregory Fruehwirth, Order of Julian of Norwich
Fr. Gregory Fruehwirth has been a brother for 19 years in The Order of Julian of Norwich, a contemplative Order of monks and nuns in the Episcopal Church, in the United States. Having been the Order's groundskeeper for many years, he currently serves as the elected Superior of the Order, and has offered retreats and presentations on prayer, the contemplative life, and Julian of Norwich in different venues across the United States and in the United Kingdom. In 2008 Paraclete Press and SPCK together published his first book, Words for Silence, a Year of Contemplative Meditations. He enjoys gardening, playing the flute, and theological and spiritual reflection.
Fr Kevin Culligan OCD
Kevin Culligan, OCD, a native of Chicago, was raised in Southern California and attended Seattle University. He entered the Discalced Carmelite friars in 1955 in Brookline, Massachusetts, and was ordained to the priesthood in Washington, DC, on June 8, 1963. He received his Ph.D. in psychology of religion from Boston University in 1979. He is a charter member of both the Institute of Carmelite Studies and the Carmelite Forum in the United States. His articles and reviews have appeared in The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, America, National Catholic Reporter, and Spiritual Life in the U.S., and in The Way in the U.K. In 2000, he edited Carmel and Contemplation:Transforming Human Consciousness for ICS Publications and in 2007 his "Carmelite Prayer and Buddhist Meditation" appeared in Spiritual Life. He regularly offers spiritual guidance and retreats in the Carmelite tradition for laity, clergy, and religious. Since 1989, he has, with Mary Jo Meadow and Daniel Chowning, developed through writings and intensive retreats the practice of Christian Insight Meditation, incorporating the wisdom of Buddhist vipassana practice into Christian spirituality as taught by St. John of the Cross. He lives in the community of Discalced Carmelite friars in Boston, Massachusetts. |