Presented by Sophfronia Scott
“To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character: Love is my name.” –Thomas Merton
Love, as Thomas Merton learned, truly is a many splendored thing. He loved God and trusted in the love of God, but he realized love’s true nature only when he fell in love himself. It changed the contemplative monk to the core and made him view God’s grace and his relation to it in new ways that he felt impelled to share in his writing.
The Merton who lived as a contemplative monk studying, writing, and praying was also a man who could be impatient, rambunctious, charming, deceptive, in pain and, yes, in love. In other words, he was completely human and in the vulnerability of that messy humanity he most felt the grace of God. Merton came to understand that when we can express ourselves as beloved children of God, we acquire a wholeness that allows us to bring the best of who we are into the world. How do we make this connection and sense God’s love for us? How do earthly and spiritual love fit together?
We will consider these questions through close readings, journaling from writing prompts, and exploring images of ourselves in which we look and feel beloved. Recognizing that so many of the issues of Merton’s time surrounding love are, sometimes frustratingly so, still our issues today, we will also discuss how Merton’s work helps us to see through a lens of grace, allowing us to access love for ourselves, for others, and even for the impossible world.
$60 | Lunch Included
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Sophfronia Scott is a novelist, essayist, and leading contemplative thinker whose work has received a 2020 Artist Fellowship Grant from the Connecticut Office of the Arts. Her book The Seeker and the Monk: Everyday Conversations with Thomas Merton won the 2021 Thomas Merton “Louie” Award from the International Thomas Merton Society.
She holds a BA in English from Harvard and an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her latest book is Wild, Beautiful, and Free, a historical novel set during the Civil War. Sophfronia’s other books include Unforgivable Love, Love’s Long Line, and This Child of Faith: Raising a Spiritual Child in a Secular World, co-written with her son Tain. Sophfronia is currently the director of Alma College’s MFA in Creative Writing, a low-residency graduate program based in Alma, Michigan. She lives in Sandy Hook, Connecticut. Learn more about Sophfronia here: sophfronia.com