Fall 2011

 

Megan McKenna Workshop Wisdom from the Community of the Beloved Disciples.....A Walk With Jesus   September 11, 2011, 4-6 PM Menlo Park Recreation Center, 701 Laurel Street Menlo Park, California   Don't miss the opportunity for two hours with theologian, story-teller, author and lecturer Megan Mckenn. Megan's topic is"Wisdom from the community of the beloved - The Great Catch, Breakfast on the Beach and a Walk with Jesus." Delve into the last chapter of John's Gospel to look at power, authority and how to cope with the failure of deciples (leaders) to respond to terror, torture, death and suffering.   More about Megan McKenna Spring 2011   Informational Lecture Intervention and support for vulnerable women and children in Kenya   Catherine Wanjohi Executive Director LifeBloom International Services of Naivasha, Kenya   March 27, 2011 4:00 pm   OLR Hospitality Center 1095 Channing St Palo Alto, CA Guy Cosolmagno, S.J. at St Ann Chapel, April 2003   Brother Guy Consolmagno EVENT WAS CANCELLED Astronomy, God, and the Search for Elegance   Friday Evening February 3, 2011 Lucie Stern Community Center Ballroom   7:00 p.m.   1305 Middlefield Rd, Palo Alto, CA   By looking closely at a handfull of astronomical images , brother Guy will explore the way that one proceeds from an emotional appreciation of the beauty of the stars and planets, to a deeper understanding that satisfies both reason and emotion. Ultimately, this link between "elegance" and rational truth has profound theological implications.    More about Brother Guy at Wikipedia     Fr. Daniel Kiriti Our Lady of the Rosary Meeting Room (OLR) 3233 Cowper, Palo Alto, CA   Map   October 16, 2010, 7 pm   Photo by karen Ande   Fr. Kiriti and Toleo   Fr. Kiriti is Pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish, Naivasha, Kenya. He will renew frienships and report on his various projects, particulrly those supported by the Thomas Merton Center. Save the Date TMC Advent Retreat December 4, 2010   Embracing the Greatest Commandment Presented by Susan Cabrera Susan Cabrera has her master's degree in counseling from Stanford University. A researcher, executive manager, author and lecturer, Susan's siminars and lectures combine her educatinal background, personal and professional experiences, and spiritual beliefs to help participants reach a deeper understanding of the teachings of Jesus Christ and to grow closer to God.

 

 

 

 

We hope you didn't miss the following events:     Sister Kathleen Deignan - Multifaceted Retreat Sprituality/Nature/Environment A Dialogue Between Thomas Merton and Thomas Berry September 10 - 11, 2010         January 23, 2010, 3 pm   Maryknoll Father Roy Bourgeois on women's ordination and other issues of women in the church. Palo Alto Art Center 1313 Newell Rd (At Embarcadero) Palo Alto, CA   Click on Fr. Bourgeois' image above for a wikipedia biography and more information on his current activities.

Annual Walt Gill Memorial Science and Religion Talk:   Ursula Goodenough Ph.D, Washington University cell biologist and author of the widely regarded book, The Sacred Depths of Nature     SAVE THE DATE   Saturday Evening November 14, 2009 Community School of Music and Art, Tateuchi Hall, Mountain View, CA

 

The Apostolic Visitation of U.S. Women Religious: Canaries in the Church’s Mineshaft? Hear theologian and lawyer, Sister Eloise Rosenblatt, R.S.M speak about Women’s Voices in the Church and the implications of the Vatican-initiated apostolic visitations of American women religious orders. Sister Eloise Rosenblatt presentation is at 3 P.M., on Sunday, September 20th, at the Palo Alto Art Center , 1313 Newell Road , in Palo Alto. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn about this hot-button topic and what Catholic lay people might expect following the Vatican summons to women’s congregations. Sister Eloise Rosenblatt has been a professor of Biblical studies and publishes in the areas of Biblical interpretation, women’s studies and law.   Link to NY Times article on the subject   Sister Rosenblatt's Bio.   Eloise Rosenblatt is a Sister of Mercy of Burlingame, California since 1967. She holds a Ph.D. in theology from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, and a J.D. from Lincoln Law School in San Jose, California. She has held positions as college administrator, graduate school professor, and university academic in biblical studies. She has published in the areas of New Testament, feminist theology, biblical spirituality and law. For the last fourteen years she has served as editor of The MAST Journal, the publication of the Mercy Association in Scripture and Theology.

 

 

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Anna Lopez, San Jose City College,

on issues regarding undocumented workers and immigration

 

 

Check back for Date, Time and Venue.

 

 

 

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2008 Events

 

Advent Morning of Reflection

 

Nancy McGaraghan

Sat. Dec 6, 2008

9 AM to 11:30 AM

Our Lady of the Rosary Hall

3233 Cowper

Palo Alto, CA

 

TM AA morning of prayer and reflection to celebrate the gifts of the advent season. Free, but donations for the work of TMCwill be accepted.

 

Directions

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Summer/Fall 2008

 

Bo Caldwell  Driving at Night: Writing and Faith TMC Religion and Literature Lecture July 27 Bo Caldwell, author of the national bestseller,The Distant Land of My Father (2001), will speak on Sunday, July 27, at Mitchell Park Community Center, 3800 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto, at 4:30 p.m. Born in 1955 and educated at Stanford where she majored in English with a concentration in creative writing before going on to become a lecturer, Bo Caldwell has written both fiction and non-fiction essays for the Washington Post Magazine, and her short stories have appeared in Story, Ploughshares, Epoch, and other literary journals. The Distant Land of my Father, a story of love, betrayal and reconciliation, is her first novel. Ms. Caldwell is married to (Deacon) Ron Hansen, also a best-selling author, and has written extensively about her conversion to Catholicism. Admission to the lecture is free; donations are gratefully accepted. _   SR. KATHLEEN DEIGNAN Saturday September 6, 2008 Hidden Villa, Mt View, CA Kathleen Deignan, CND, PHD Mark your calendar for an inspirational retreat conducted by noted theologian and musician Kathleen Deignan.  FR. RICHARD McBRIEN       RETURNS OCTOBER 11,2008   AN ELECTON YEAR PRESENTATION SAVE THE DATE VENUE TO BE DETERMINED

Rosemary Radford Ruether

Rosemary Radford Ruether   March 18, 2007 4:00 PM Our Lady of the Rosary Church's meeting hall, 3233 Cowper Street Palo Alto, CA   Pioneer Christian feminist theologian, to speak on "Healing Ourselves, Healing the Earth: Justice and Third World Women" Ruether links oppression of women and impoverishment of the earth. She popularized the term "ecofeminism" over a decade ago. "The basic idea behind ecofeminism is that there is some symbolic and social connection with how woman and nature have been treated and how they're often symbolized in a similar way," she has said. "Once you get that idea across, the big question is what you do with it." She will explore this connection, which can be made on both the ideological symbolic level (often the focus of western first-world women) or the socio-economic-political level (addressed by third world women). She argues that western women need to learn from third world women that women's impoverishment is linked to ecological destruction. The awareness of privileged westerners can push forward an agenda of healing that impacts all humans on the planet. Ruether's interests reach beyond the limits of feminist theology. With wide-ranging scholarship and a penchant for finding the hidden connections among seemingly disparate fields, Ruether has written and edited over thirty books and hundreds of articles and reviews. She is at home in such diverse fields as patristics, the historical and theological roots of anti-Semitism, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the history of women in American religion, liberation theology, the mythology of the ancient Near East, and ecology. Ruether, born in 1936 in St. Paul, Minnesota, attended Scripps College as an undergraduate (1954-58), married political science student Herman Ruether in her senior year, and continued on to earn a Master's and doctoral degree in classics and patristics at Claremont Graduate School (now University) in the early 1960s, finding time to raise three children along the way. The daughter of a Catholic mother and an Episcopalian father, she describes her childhood milieu as religiously ecumenical, humanistic and free-thinking as opposed to parochial or 'ghetto-ized' Catholicism. Ruether recommends two of her books related to the topic of the March 18 talk: Gaia and God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing and Integrating Ecofeminism, Globalization, and World Religions (Nature's Meanings). Her book, Sexism and God-Talk, a classic in the field of theology, gave her hall-of-fame-like status among her peers; it remains the only systematic feminist treatment of the Christian symbols to date. Ruether is Professor Emerita at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley. "Healing Ourselves, Healing the Earth: Justice and Third World Women" is part of the Thomas Merton Center of Palo Alto's programming of spiritual education for adults. For program information for the general public, contact Kay Williams at 650.328.2781.

We hope you didn't miss Hershel Shanks

Hershel Shanks, Dead Sea Scrolls Authority, to Speak on "The Mystery and Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls" in Palo Alto, Octber 21 Psalm Scroll Shanks Broke Secret Control of Scrolls, Bringing Them to Scholars and the Public Palo Alto, Calif., September 28, 2006 -- Hershel Shanks, who first published the long-time secret Dead Sea Scrolls, will speak on "The Mystery and Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls" on Saturday, October 21, at 7:30 p.m. in the Lucie Stern Community Center Hall,, 1305 Middlefield Road in Palo Alto, California. The Sea Scrolls are arguably the most important archaeological discovery of modern times. Written between 250 B.C. and 68 A.D., they are the oldest copies of Biblical books in existence. The scrolls' 800 biblical manuscripts contain excerpts from every book of the Hebrew Bible except Esther, and the complete book of Isaiah. They shed light into the turbulent religious era at the time of Jesus, and contain biblical commentaries, previously unknown psalms and manuscripts that foreshadow Christian doctrine. In a rare West Coast appearance, Shanks will recount the history of the Scrolls' discovery and the decades-long quest to bring them to the public. He will shed light on their role in the development of the Bible. He will also describe the insights that the scrolls bring to what he calls "the remarkably variegated Judaism" of their era, presenting the view the scrolls provide into the development of modern Judaism, as well as a picture of the earliest days of Christianity First discovered by a Bedouin shepherd at least 60 years ago in Qumran, on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, the scrolls have consistently been the subject of behind-the-scenes machinations as scholars and Bedouin alike raced to discover more scrolls. For decades, the scrolls remained surrounded by ongoing political and academic intrigue by international scholars determined to keep the scrolls secret and unavailable to the public. Shanks broke the hold of secrecy in 1991, when he published the first volume of a computer generated reconstruction of some of the unpublished texts, followed by A Facsimile Edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a two-volume folio edition of photographs of the complete unpublished scrolls. The scrolls then became available to the public and scholars alike in a breakthrough the New York Times hailed as having "broken the scroll cartel." Hershel Shanks is founder and editor of Bible Review and Biblical Archaeology Review, the most widely read and authoritative periodical on the subject. An international authority on Jerusalem and the Dead Sea Scrolls, he has written about biblical archaeology for over 30 years. "The Mystery and Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls, with Hershel Shanks" is part of the Thomas Merton Center's tenth anniversary lecture series. This program is sponsored by the Thomas Merton Center of Palo Alto with additional support from the Taube Center for Jewish Studies at Stanford University and Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos. The Thomas Merton Center of Palo Alto aims to enhance spiritual development through education, spiritual practice and social outreach. The Merton Center sponsors regular Roman Catholic Sunday and other liturgies, adult education programs and community development activities. For program information for the general public, contact 650.328.2781 Note to editors: Hershel Shanks is available for telephone interviews prior to his appearance in Palo Alto. To arrange an interview or for further information, contact Mary Coady at 650.261.9155.

Robert Blair Kaiser, June 4, 2006

 

2006 Events

Day of Recollection

Advent Day of Recollection - With Rev.Tim Meier, S. J. December 3, 2005 12:00 Noon to 4:00 PM St. Marks Episcopal Church Hall and Chapel 600 Colrorado Ave, Palo Alto, CA.

We hope you didn't Miss

Darwinism Vs. Evolution:

The Intersection of Science Religion and Politics

A talk by Peter C. Reynolds

Dr. Reynolds received his PhD in anthropology from Yale University. In the 1980’s, he did participant observation in the computer industry in Silicon Valley, a project that culminated in a book on contemporary technocratic culture: Stealing Fire, published by Iconic Anthropology Press.

Published in 1980, his first book, on the Evolution of Human Behavior, explored the relationship between human ethology and social science and was published by the University of California Press.

Dr. Reynolds is curently working on a book on the cognitive transition from apes to humans.

August 28, 2005, 7:30 P.M., St. Albert the Great Hospitality Center

1095 Channing Ave.

Palo Alto, CA

Second Event of Religion and Literature Series

Spirituality In Contemporary Short Fiction

Fr. Tenny Wright, S.J., will lead a discussion on the short fiction of three contemporary masters - Andre Dubus (of House of Sand and Fog and We Don't Live Here Anymore fame) Flannery O'Conner and Tobias Wolff. Fr. Wright has suggested one story by each of these writers, which we'll read prior to the program. He will guide us in a discussion of their work and links to spirituality.

Fr. Wright teaches the courses "Literature and Theology," Religious Imagination," "The Catholic Novel" and "Catholic Themes in Literature," at Santa Clara University.

May 7, 2005, 7:30 pm - First Luthern Church, 600 Homer Ave. Palo Alto, CA.

MAP to First Lutheran

 

Buy the referenced books online at Keplers and TMC will receive 5% of the sale. Please click on the links below to make the purchase. NOTE: Buying online outside of this site will not credit TMC with the purchase:

 

Andre Dubus - Selected Stories

 

A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories

 

In the Garden of the North American Martyrs

 

If you buy over the counter at Keplers, mention that you support the Thomas Merton Center and TMC will also receive 5% of the price.

 

Directions to Keplers in Menlo Park, CA.

Kepler's Bookstore
1010 El Camino Real
Menlo Park, CA 94025
650-324-4321

First Event of Religion and Literature Series

WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST SAY THAT?

Fr. James Torrens S.J., talking about his book, Uphill Running: a Jesuit Life, a collection of his poetry. Fr.Torrens is a prolific writer, literary critic, and former editor of the catholic weekly magazine America.

March 12, 2005, 7:30 P.M., St. Marks Episcopal Church

600 Colorado St.

Palo Alto, CA

 

Directions

 

WHILE WE SLEEP

AIDS: AFRICA AND ITS ORPHANS

An exhibit of Karen Ande's stunning photographs of some of Africa's children who have been affected by an unfolding tragedy. Karen's work speaks not of hopelessness and despair but of cultural richness and great beauty .

 

 

 

Sunday

December 5, 2004

 

Reception 2-4 PM

 

Saint Marks Episcopal Church Hall

600 Colorado St., Palo Alto, CA.

 

Sponsored by The Thomas Merton Center of Palo Alto, and the FireLight Foundation (www.firelightfoundation.org)

A special thanks goes to the staff and congregation of St. Marks Episcopal Church in Palo Alto, for hosting the exhibit.

 

 

Father Michael Buckley, S.J.

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Fr. Buckley is Professor of Theology, and former director of the Jesuit Institute at Boston College

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Saturday May 22, 2004

Our Lady of the Rosary Hall

3233 Cowper st.

Palo Alto, CA

 

Click the Yahoo icon below for an online map.

Atheism and Contemplation. The Illusions and Validity of Religious Experience."

Fr. Buckley's book--"At the Origins of Modern Atheism" investigates the rise of modern atheism, arguing convincingly that its roots reach back to the seventeenth century, when Catholic theologians began to call upon philosophy and science - rather than any intrinsically religious experience - to defend the existence of God. One reviewer called it "A work of great lucidity, significance, and historical understanding."

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The Aids Orphans of Kenya.

A presentation by Journalist Ruthann Richter and Photographer Karen Ande.

Sunday May 16, 2004, 2:00 p.m.   St Marks Church, 600 Colorado Ave Palo Alto, CA

 

Fr. George Coyne S. J.

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Fr. Coyne is the distinguished Director of the Vatican Observatory, with locations at the University of Arizona, Tucson, and Castel Gandolfo near Rome.

 

He will speak on the best scientific understanding of how the vast variety of objects in the universe came to be, and, from the simplest (quarks and protons) to the most complex (the human brain), whether they are all related to one another.

 

The Dance of the Fertile Universe: Chance and Destiny Embrace

Walter Gill Lecture on Science and Religion.

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Saturday, April 24, 2004, 7:30 p.m.

Our Lady of the Rosary

Hospitality Center

3233 Cowper St.

Palo Alto, CA.

 

Admission is Free and Open to All

 

 

To read more about Fr. Coyne

Click here.

 

 

Sarah Melici as Dorothy Day

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Fool for Christ packs a rich and complicated life into a relatively small span of theater time, giving attention to Day's loves spirituality and politics. She was one of the most influential figures in American Catholicism.

 

Fool for Christ A one woman play on the life, loves, and passions of social activist, writer, and cofounder of The Catholic Worker Newspaper and the Catholic Worker Movement.

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Friday, February 20, 2004, 7:30 p.m.

 

St Marks Church, Colorado Ave, Palo Alto, CA

 

 

ANNE LAMOTT

Sunday, January 11, 2004, 4:00 p.m. St. Elizabeth Seton School Auditorium 1095 Channing Ave. Palo Alto, CA.

Photo Credit: Scott Braley

 

Anne Lamott writes and speaks about subjects that begin with capital letters: Alcoholism, Motherhood, Jesus. But armed with self-effacing humor - she is laugh-out-loud funny - and ruthless honesty, Lamott converts her subjects into enchantment. Actually, she writes and speaks about what most of us don't like to think about. In her novels, Anne Lamott writes about loss - loss of loved ones and loss of personal control. She doesn't try to sugar-coat the sadness, frustration and dissappointment, but tells her stories with honesty, compassion and a pureness of voice. Anne Lamott says, " I have a lot of hope and a lot of faith and I struggle to communicate that." She does communicate her faith; in her books and in person all the while keeping us laughing. A bestselling author Anne Lamott is a past recipient of a Guggenhiem Fellowship, and she has taught at UC Davis, as well as at writing conferences across the U.S. Anne Lamott's appearance is a fundraiser for St. Elizabeth Seton School. Admission is $25:00 Anne Lamott's novels and works of non-fiction are available at amazon.com.

Traveling Mercies

 

 

 

Sister Jane Kelly, P.B.V.M.

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Sister Kelly is the author of Taught to Believe the Unbelievable - A New Vision of Hope for the Catholic Church and Society. (Writers Club Press)

 

Her courageous, selfless, and tenacious actions to correct the egregious ills that had beset her home diocese of Santa Rosa, California in 1999, have been a beacon of hope to many who long to see the church more open, inclusive, and truer to its spiritual foundation.

 

Sr. Kelly's vision goes beyond the church itself, encompassing thoughts on its relationship to society at large.

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Buy the book at Amazon.com

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December 13, 2003

7:30 pm

St Albert the Great Hospitality Room

1095 Channing Ave.

Palo Alto, California

 

 

 

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A nun for 50 years, Sister Kelly will share her journey from mindless obedience (she rejected this notion early in her vocation) to social activism.

 

 

 

Fr. Tim Meier, S.J.

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Fr. Meier is a research associate in the department of biological sciences at Stanford University. He has agreed to continue his reflections on the topic of stem cell research and how people of faith can evaluate and respond to this important scientific issue. Fr. Tim will present a brief overview of stem cell research (as he presented it on September 12), and there will be an expanded question and answer period.

 

The Biology of Stem Cells and the Challenge of a Response in Faith: Part II

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Friday, Novenber 14, 2003, 7:30 p.m.

 

St. Albert the Great Hospitality Room

1095 Channing

Palo Alto, CA.

 

Bro. Guy Consolmagno S. J.

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Brother Guy is an astronomer, lecturer and research scientist who is curator of one of the worlds largest meteorite collections. He is the Author of several books including - Brother Astronomer:Adventures of a Vatican Scientist - and a popular telescope guide entitled Turn Left at Orion.

 

Heaven or Heat Death? Scientific and Religious Views of the End of the Universe.

Walter Gill Lecture on Science and Religion.

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Saturday, April 5, 2003, 7:30 p.m.

St Ann Chapel,

541 Melville St.

Palo Alto, CA.

 

To read more about Bro. Guy,

Click here.

Women's Ordination:

A Discussion with Dr. Ida Raming

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Dr. Raming, a noted Catholic theologian and women's ordination pioneer _ one of the seven women ordained in Austria in June, 2002 - will share her experience of ordination, excommunication, and the future of women's ministry.

 

Sunday

April 13, 2003

7:30 p.m.

St. Ann Chapel

541 Melville Ave. (at Tasso Street)

Palo Alto, CA

 

 

 

Dr Raming's visit is part of a national tour.

 

For information on other venues, visit the tour Web site by clicking Here

 

Raming's ground breaking 1969 doctoral study of the long history of discrimination against women from early Christian writings and the Middle Ages, demonstrated that the church's exclusion of women from the priesthood was based upon the concept of the essential and ethical inferiority of women. Published first in German, then in English in 1976 as The Exclusion of women from the Priesthood: Divine Law or Sex Discrimination?, her book was influential and soon will be republished in an updated edition edited by Dr. Bernard Cooke and Dr.Gary Macy for Scarecrow Press, as the second volume of a series on the history of women's ordination.

A Presentation by Human Concerns Activists.

Sponsored Jointly with the Human Concerns Committee of The St. Thomas Aquinas Parish,

Palo Alto, CA

 

 Saturday

February 22, 2003

10 am - 12 noon

 

Our Lady of the Rosary Church Community Hall

3233 Cowper St., Palo Alto, CA.

 

 

Participants took home concrete ideas on the many ways to help bring social justice to our world.

 

Human concerns activists and volunteer advocates for the needy and dispossessed shared their ministries and stories of how their involvement has changed their lives.

Left to Right:

George Chippendale, Larry Purcell, Mercedes McCaffrey, Don Jensen, and Scott Wages.

Ministries represented included: St. Vincent de Paul Society, Catholic Worker House of Redwood City, CA., Friends Outside, Urban Ministry of Palo Alto, and Community Homeless Alliance Ministry (CHAM)