Thomas Merton (1915–1968) is widely acclaimed as one of the most influential spiritual masters of the twentieth century. A Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, he was a poet, social activist, and student of comparative religion. In 1949, he was ordained to the priesthood and given the name Father Louis. Merton wrote more than seventy books, mostly on spirituality, social justice, and a quiet pacifism, as well as scores of essays and reviews, including his best-selling autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain.
Kathleen Deignan, C.N.D., a sister of the Congregation of Notre Dame, is a teaching theologian, psalmist, and composer of more than 200 songs for liturgy and prayer produced by Schola Ministries. She received her master’s degree in spirituality studies and her doctorate in historical theology from Fordham University in New York, where she studied with her mentor, the late geologian Fr. Thomas Berry, in whose honor she and three other Berry students founded The Thomas Berry Forum for Ecological Dialogue at Iona. Deignan is a professor of religious studies at Iona College, where she founded and directs the Iona Spirituality Institute, a project for the celebration and study of the spiritual life. The institute has sponsored her work in interfaith dialogue, peace and justice studies, and spiritual animation in the United States and abroad, particularly in Ireland where she has worked to foster the legacy of Thomas Merton. In 2009, she received Fordham’s Sapientia et Doctrina Award for her work in spirituality and, in 2014, an honorary degree from her alma mater, Sacred Heart University. An editor of five books, including A Book of Hours (Sorin Books, 2007), Deignan has also written many articles that have appeared in The Way, Review for Religious, Sisters Today, The Merton Seasonal, The Merton Annual, Cross Currents, Franciscan Review, Diakonia, Sacred Journey and Monastic Interreligious Dialogue Bulletin. Deignan is a GreenFaith Fellow, and former president of the International Thomas Merton Society. She sits on the boards of The American Teilhard Association, The International Thomas Merton Society, GreenFaith, and The Giuliani Foundation for Religion and the Arts.
