Finding and Losing Ourselves in Art with Thomas Merton

FINDING OURSELVES AND LOSING OURSELVES IN ART WITH THOMAS MERTON:
A GUIDED RETREAT AND VISIT TO GETHSEMANI AND MERTON’S HERMITAGE

Thomas Merton wrote that “art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” The Trappist monk famous for his autobiography and spiritual writings was also a photographer and artist. Retreatants will journey through Merton’s life in art: his parents who were artists, his college cartoons, a religious conversion inspired by art, and his evolving style of photography and calligraphic drawings that parallel his growth and development in spirituality. Retreatants will have the rare opportunity to visit Merton’s hermitage at Gethsemani and to see photographs and hear poetry by Br. Paul Quenon, a poet, photographer, and a former novice of Merton’s. There will be ample time to spend in the natural beauty of the Nazareth Retreat Center and the grounds of Gethsemani Abbey and opportunities to pray with the monks of Gethsemani during the Liturgy of the Hours.

Mark C. Meade is the assistant director of the Thomas Merton Center in Louisville and is a past president of the International Thomas Merton Society. In over 20 years at the Center, he has given tours to thousands of guests and presented internationally on Thomas Merton.