Video and Conference Presentations
of the Mount Angel Institute
Sacred Art, New Evangelization, and Sacred Scripture
with Tomasz Misztal
Tomasz Misztal shares how art and its creation has transformed and affected his life. Focusing on the sacred and incorporating figurative and abstract elements in his pieces that express the human condition and spirit, learn how his artistic approach has transformed and evolved over time.
Misztal was born in Poland and currently lives and works in Portland, Oregon. He earned his Master of Fine Arts and PhD from the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, Poland, and taught as a faculty professor there from 1982 to 1993. He has also taught art privately throughout his career.
Misztal has worked in many international museums and institutions, including Sachseln, Switzerland; Lisbon and the Azores, Portugal; Berlin, Germany; Warsaw, Gdansk, and Warka, Poland; and most notably, the Vatican Collection.
Misztal’s talent has been recognized numerous times, including with a silver medal in the category of Work on Paper at the 2011 International Biennale of Modern Art in Florence, Italy. He has also had several solo exhibitions in the United States and abroad.
In this presentation, research in the neurosciences and education will be the basis for asking questions about the effects of digital mediums on the development and the sustaining of deep reading processes, particularly empathy/perspective-taking, inference, and critical thinking — the precursors to the contemplative function and our deepest insights. Just as Proust saw reading as the vehicle to thoughts by us that go “beyond the author’s wisdom,” Wolf asks what are the contributions and the impediments to deep reading processes in a digital culture that we must address in ourselves and in the development of the next generation.
Applied Thomistic Psychology: Hope for our Disordered World
with Christin McIntyre, MD, PhD
Eight hundred years ago, Saint Thomas Aquinas described the inner workings of the human soul with profound clarity. Today, his writings continue to offer valuable insights into mental health, because the truth of how God designed us becomes a light to reveal how and why some modern therapies work better than others, and why some may pose a danger to our souls. For the mental health crisis in our world today, Thomistic Psychology offers hope for true healing.
Christin McIntyre, MD, PhD has been in outpatient practice as a psychiatrist in the Portland area since 2002. She continues to see patients in Oregon and Washington by telehealth since relocating to Idaho in 2021. Psychotherapy continues to be a main focus of her practice, and to better serve a growing number of Catholic patients in recent years, she has pursued training in Thomistic Psychology as well as with the John Paul II Healing Center. She and her husband are Oblates of Mount Angel Abbey, where she offers periodic retreats that draw from her experience in clinical psychiatry, spiritual healing ministry, and the Catholic faith.
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Monastic Spirituality and The Christian in the World
Monks of Mount Angel Abbey
Winter 2024 Lecture Series
The Christian in the World
The Christian in the World lecture series, sponsored by Mount Angel Institute, is an integrated program of study, prayer and discussion for Catholics who want to live their faith more deeply. The program seeks to help participants gain a more profound understanding of the Scriptures and the Church, and to support lay people in exploring how to live their baptismal vocation in everyday life.
January 27, 2024
What is monastic spirituality?
Led by Br. Ambrose Stewart, OSB
Presentation One | Winter-Spring 2024Monastic spirituality as a guide for life for every person is the theme for the winter/spring 2024 Christian in the World series. The first lecture is titled, “What is monastic spirituality?” The focus is on the Desert Fathers – those 3rd and 4th century monks who first fled to the Egyptian desert in search of God.
Download PDF file for text to accompany the audio file for What Is Monastic Spirituality?
February 10, 2024
Monastic spirituality: A journey together to everlasting life.
Led by Abbot Peter Eberle, OSB
Presentation Two | Winter-Spring 2024
In his talk, “Monastic spirituality: A journey together to everlasting life,” Abbot Peter explains how monastic community life is structured, its purpose, and how learning about the spirituality of community life can help lay people live out their Christian vocation. He will, in part, base his presentation on chapter 72 from the Rule of St. Benedict:
“… This, then, is the good zeal which monks must foster with fervent love: They should each try to be the first to show respect to the other (Romans 12:10), supporting with the greatest patience one another’s weaknesses of body or behavior, and earnestly competing in obedience to one another. No one is to pursue what he judges better for himself, but instead, what he judges better for someone else. To their fellow monks, they show the pure love of brothers; to God, loving fear; to their abbot, unfeigned and humble love. Let them prefer nothing whatever to Christ, and may he bring us all together to everlasting life.”
March 9, 2024
Monastic spirituality: Listening to and praying with God’s voice.
Led by Fr. John Paul Le, OSB
Presentation Three | Winter-Spring 2024In this Christian in the World lecture, Fr. John Paul Le will explore monastic spirituality from the perspective of prayer and how this prayer can enrich the life of a Christian living in the world. The first part of his talk will focus on lectio divina, the ancient monastic practice of prayerfully reading the sacred Scriptures. Throughout the centuries, monks developed this method of reading the Scriptures which can be broken down into four steps: reading, meditation, prayer, and contemplation.
The theme of the second part of the lecture is the Liturgy of the Hours (or Divine Office), the prayer of the Church. St. Benedict calls this rhythm of chanting the psalms and other Scriptures the “Work of God.” Through the Liturgy of the Hours, we unite ourselves to Christ in his eternal prayer to the Father.
April 13, 2024
Monastic spirituality: Reaching out to and being formed by the world around us.
Led by Fr. Michael Shrum, OSBThis final presentation in the spring 2024 series, by Fr. Michael Shrum, OSB, explores how monastic spirituality both forms and is formed by the world around us. He traces the movement of the Holy Spirit in the life of St. Benedict and in his disciples, including the pioneer monks who established Mount Angel Abbey. By looking at the history of Mount Angel Abbey and its monks, Fr. Michael shares how the Holy Spirit moves and works precisely in the time and place in which the monk finds himself, and this is a lesson for all Christians living in the world.
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Dr. William Desmond
Archbishop Robert J Dwyer Lecture Series
October 2022 -
