Thomas Merton
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Notes on Silence… is here!
Many of you know I’ve been working on co-authoring a book with Patrick Shen. We lovingly titled the work Notes on Silence based on our extensive deep-dive into studying silence over the last four years. It includes nearly 300 pages of original essays, images, quotes, notes, and transcripts from the silence experts featured in the documentary film, In Pursuit…
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Encounters with Silence – Thomas Merton’s Hermitage
To go seeking for something which cannot be sought. To go on looking for something which cannot be found. To attempt to do something which cannot be done.
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The Uncertainty of Silence
(This will be among the many essays featured in the forthcoming book Notes on Silence that I’m co-authoring with Patrick Shen which can be purchased here.) “…I want to be with those who know secret things or else alone…” Rainer Maria Rilke I was around 8 years old when I began to have reoccurring dreams about…
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The Encountering Silence Podcast is Here!
Many of you know I’ve begun recording a podcast with my dear friends, fellow writers and thinkers, Carl McColman and Kevin M. Johnson. They’ve focused on silence and contemplative studies for years via writing, speaking, and personal practice. We’re finally on iTunes sharing our podcast with the world. It’s titled Encountering Silence because of the way silence is…
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When Letting Go Is Holding On
“My dishonesty with myself and others hinders the honesty of all humanity, hinders the progress of all people.” Journal entry on 2/12/12 In 2012 I made the decision to let go of some certainty in my life for the sake of exploring something unknown. I quit my job. I quit my salary-paying, insurance-giving job full of security…
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Responding to Charlottesville – Clarity from Chaos
Day after day we see hatred rise up in the world and our anxious flailing towards ‘what to do’ increases. We become debilitated by both the anger/fear and the possibilities before us. We become blinded to the good we can jump in on. We fail to see the love we can be a part of.…
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Trying To Say ‘God’ – Update
This month I’ve spent bouncing around the world from the Pelicam Film Festival in Romania (with the sponsorship of the US Embassy), to the ITMS (International Thomas Merton Society) Conference at St. Bonaventure University, and most recently the literary conference, Trying to Say ‘God’, as put on by Sick Pilgrim and Notre Dame‘s Institute for Scholarship in…
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“Cassidy Hall found silence in an Iowa monastery and brought her discoveries to a new documentary” Des Moines Register
“A cricket chirped in the monastery’s library. That and the swish of a turned page, Thomas Merton’s “New Seeds of Contemplation,” was about it for sound. Cassidy Hall stopped on page 81. Merton did not write on the absence of sound on that page but the abyss of solitude in the soul: “You do not…
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Faith and Doubt in the Labyrinth
I am easily led to anxiety in unfamiliar situations. I don’t like to do things with other people, and though I recognize the necessity in community, I’d almost always prefer to go about my day on my own, for comfort’s sake. Like most of us, I like certainty. Like most of us, I realize life…
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A Poetic Hope
“I don’t care to wake up in the morning without hope. Hope is a survival mechanism.” Norman Lear, Producer I’ve been sleeping more than I usually do, and not because I need it. I’m waking up every day to the latest news alerts reminding me of our country’s status and that things can dramatically change…
Dr. Cassidy Hall, DMin, MDiv, MTS, MA 