Cassidy Hall
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Maybe it’s time for me to let go of Thomas Merton
Today marks 53 years since Merton died in Bangkok, Thailand. I wrote the following article originally published by The Christian Century on December 6, 2021. “How can we be sure younger generations learn about Thomas Merton?” Every time I show Day of a Stranger, the documentary film I made about the Trappist monk, I’m asked some form of this question. Viewers…
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Speaking Down Barriers | A Conversation with Poet Davelyn Hill
Transcript: DAVELYN HALL: I don’t think I can say that I am a mystic without being connected to community. So I can’t say that for me. I need to be connected to community in order to be a mystic, how do you not? Cassidy Hall: Welcome to Contemplating Now, a podcast about the intersection of contemplation and…
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Breathing Mysticism | A Conversation with Dr. Angela N. Parker
Transcript: Dr Angela Parker: I don’t often think about contemplative actions going together. But what does contemplative action look like among people where the breath of God is going through groups of people? And I think that’s what we see with protests, with the Black Lives Matter protests, that there’s that contemplative action that actually…
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The Privilege of Contemplation | A Conversation with Dr. Anthea Butler
“being a contemplative doesn’t mean that you escape society, or you escape the world, but that you find a place to anchor yourself firmly first of all, and then secondarily, take care of those things in the ways in which you need to take care of them.”
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Time, Tenderness, and Terror: Reflections from a Hospital Chaplain
the presence of personhood and accompaniment is an offering beyond words. The statue of immovable presence and peace amid unfathomable loss is at best a sentiment.
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Mysticism in the Streets: A Conversation with Dr. Leah Gunning Francis
I never want anybody to feel like if you can’t be in the street protesting then you’re not a quote-unquote true activist. No! Activism first starts in the heart. And when you determine in your heart, that what you are seeing in our world should not be, you cannot let it stand, then out of…
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Fresh Courage: A Conversation with Dr. Lerita Coleman Brown
Dr. Lerita Coleman Brown has retired as Distinguished Professor Emerita of Psychology at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA. Now, in addition to her academic work, she has pursued a life in ministry, becoming a spiritual director and leading workshops and prayer groups promoting contemplative spiritual practices and the life and work of Howard Thurman. More than 25 years ago,…
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Heart Work: A Conversation with Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows
“I long for the day we don’t need food pantries and we don’t need Black Lives Matter protest to state the obvious. Black Lives Matter and people should be fed and not hungry in the richest country in the world.”
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Solitude in a Toolshed
Although the hunt for more solitude was a pattern in Merton’s life, the sense of “arrival” was palpable for him in rat-infested toolshed
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Embodied and Boundless: A Conversation with Zenju Earthlyn Manuel
So just developing that kind of silence and stillness helps to navigate the world navigate life, you’re actually honing and cultivating a way of walking in the jungle of life.
Dr. Cassidy Hall, DMin, MDiv, MTS, MA 