Programs and Events
of the Mount Angel Institute

Artist-in-Residence Exhibit

The Project for St. Patrick Church, Sketches, and Other Works

Tomasz Misztal
Mount Angel Library | September 6-20

Tomasz 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 the 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.

Because of his focus on sacred art, Misztal has created artworks for many commissions for private and public entities, including many churches and monasteries. You can find his Last Supper sculpture in our guesthouse dining room. His piece in the Vatican Collection was commissioned for the Solidarity Movement on behalf of the Gdynia dock workers as a gift for Pope John Paul II in 1987.

Sacred Art, New Evangelization, and Sacred Scripture: Reflections and Stories from My Life

Tomasz Misztal
September 13 | 3–4 pm
Mount Angel Library

Join us for a talk with our artist-in-residence, Tomasz Misztal, who will share 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, we will hear 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.

Because of his focus on sacred art, Misztal has created artworks for many commissions, for private and public entities, including many churches and monasteries. You can find his Last Supper sculpture in our guesthouse dining room. His piece in the Vatican Collection was commissioned for the Solidarity Movement on behalf of the Gdynia dock workers as a gift for Pope John Paul II in 1987.

Cardinal Hume on the Eucharist:
“Did not our hearts burn within us as we listened to him speaking?”

Sr. Gertrude Feick, OCSO
September 14 | 9:15–11:45 am
Mount Angel Library

Sister Gertrude is known to many CITW patrons from the fine presentations she gave in years past, when she was still working on her thesis, a study of Cardinal Basil Hume. Having completed it, she will offer a reflection on Cardinal Hume’s Eucharistic spirituality. She writes: “The working title for my presentation is Cardinal Hume on the Eucharist: “Did not our hearts burn within us as we listened to him speaking?” Her presentation will set the tone for the entire fall 2024 lecture series: ought not our hearts burn when we recognize him in the ‘breaking of the bread’?

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.

Understanding What Happens at Mass

Abbot Jeremy Driscoll, OSB
October 19 | 9:15–11:45 am
Mount Angel Library

In this second lecture of the fall CITW series, Abbot Jeremy will look with us at four parts of the Mass, understanding their relationship and flow: from the Liturgy of the Word, to the bringing of gifts of bread and wine to the altar, through the Eucharistic Prayer and what is effected there, and in this light come to understand some of what it means to receive Holy Communion in this context.

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.

MAI Symposium

The Sea and the Stars: Navigating the Modern World

with Rev. Stephen Rowan, PhD
October 25-27, 2024

This Mount Angel Institute Symposium offers a unique cultural and philosophical retreat, with a rich program of lectures, meals, and conversation, as well as joining the monks in chanting, prayer, and meditation. The title, The Sea and the Stars: Navigating the Modern World, links Dante’s theme of navigating The Divine Comedy with the challenges of navigating the modern world.

Rev. Stephen Rowan, PhD, will lead the retreat. A priest of the Archdiocese of Seattle and a professor of English, Fr. Rowan served as the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Portland. Since 1977, he has held several academic and educational positions: Associate professor of English, Chair of the English Department, and then Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Seattle University; Interim President of Carroll College in Helena, Montana; Vicar for Education, Superintendent of Catholic Schools, and Chair of the Board of the Fulcrum Foundation for the Archdiocese of Seattle. Father Rowan holds a doctorate in English from the University of British Columbia.

Space is limited to maintain the symposium-style atmosphere of this retreat. For information on registration, please email Br. Anselm Flores.

All Saints’ Relics Pilgrimage and Display

Br. Alfredo Miranda, OSB
November 1
Abbey church

Join us for a spiritual pilgrimage on All Saints’ Day and explore the meaning and role of the hundreds of relics we preserve in our Abbey church. Pray and venerate with the monks and all the saints on this holy day and leave refreshed and inspired to imitate the saints’ lives!

Exploring the Real Presence

Abbot Peter Eberle, OSB
November 9 | 9:15–11:45 am
Mount Angel Library

With Abbot Peter as our guide, the objective of this presentation will be to discuss (in non-technical terms) a history of the controversies concerning the Real Presence, as well as to discuss what are some of the ethical implications of the Real Presence for the Christian life.

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.

How to Pray When You’re Too Busy:
Living a Contemplative Life in the World

Jennifer Anna Rich
November 16 | 3–4 pm
Mount Angel Library

How can we, as Christians, practice stillness, ceaseless prayer, and being with God in a busy and often distracted world? Embedded in her Orthodox tradition of praying the Jesus Prayer in ways both fixed and free, Jennifer Anna Rich will share some insights on how she strives to live a contemplative life in a complex and busy world with wisdom from the Philokalia.

Jennifer Anna Rich is an author, scriptorium book artist, and urban farmer. She holds a master’s degree in Theology and has been a lifelong student of contemplative prayer. Rich leads Orthodox prayer retreats and pilgrimages with a deep desire to help others love their prayer lives. She is the author of Prayer Spa: Ancient Treatments for the Modern Soul, and The Little Way of a Pilgrim, recently released by Ancient Faith Kids Publishing. She oversees Oblation Papers & Press with her husband and occasionally their two grown daughters and offers letterpress prayer cards from her private studio, Poustinia Press.

Receiving the Gifts of OCIA: Encountering the New Translation

Bill Keimig
November 22 | 3:30–5 pm
Mount Angel Library

The restoration of the catechumenal process, and now its updating in a new translation, is a reflection of the Church’s wisdom in returning to a tried-and-true practice in order to lovingly bring people into her fold, and foster the Holy Spirit’s work of deep and lasting personal conversion. The Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA) is a restoration of grace for those seeking Christ and his one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. This workshop inaugurates the necessary vision to develop excellent parish-based OCIA ministry, beginning with a call to trust the wisdom of Holy Mother Church in her discernment to gift the modern world with a way of Christian initiation unparalleled in its beauty and power. Only in the light of this trust and deep understanding of the OCIA process, as the Church intends it to be implemented, does the full purpose and potential of the initiation journey become clear and attainable.

Eucharistic Transformation:
Desire, Liturgy, and Purification

Br. Anselm Flores, OSB
December 14 | 9:15–11:45 am
Mount Angel Library

What is the greatest Eucharistic miracle? More than what we commonly know as “Eucharistic miracles,” Br. Anselm explains, the greatest miracle is that we are transformed into what the Eucharist signifies: the true presence of God. But how does this come about and where is the place where this transformation occurs? This presentation will examine the key notion of desire – often misunderstood in contemporary society – and its transformation and purification within the liturgy, the place and the means by which we “put on Christ” and become what we were destined to be.

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.

Tidings: An Advent Organ Recital

Emily Bavaro
December 14 | 2:30–3:30 pm
Abbey church

Meditate on the tidings of Advent at an organ recital by Emily Bavaro, featuring “Tidings” by American composer Daniel Pinkham and settings of traditional carols by Johannes Brahms, Charles Ives, and C. Hubert H. Parry.

Program

1. Prelude and Fugue in g minor
Nicolaus Bruhns (1665-1697)

2. Chorale in E-Flat Major
J.S. Bach (1685-1750)

3. Es ist ein Ros’ entsprungen
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

4. Adeste Fidelis
Charles Ives (1874-1954)

5. Tidings
Daniel Pinkham (1923-2006)

i. Tidings of Joy
ii. Tidings That Echo Heard
iii. Tidings of Peace
iv. Tidings of a Fleeting Vision
v. Tidings of Glories Yet to Come

6. Chorale Prelude on “Dundee”
C. Hubert H. Parry (1848-1918)

7. Toccata, Suite Op. 5
Maurice Durufle (1902-1986)

Learning to See:
Discovering the Beauty Around You

Helen Bouchard
January 25, 2025 | 3–4 pm
Mount Angel Library

Join us with our current artist-in-residence, Helen Bouchard, for a conversation on the value and benefit of art for everyone, why beauty matters, the role of the artist, and how learning to see can enrich your life by finding new connections with beauty that have been lost in our modern culture!

Learn more about artist and art teacher Helen Bouchard.

Cities of St. Paul

with Fr. Odo Recker, OSB
May 12–25, 2025

This pilgrimage to the cities of Turkey visited by St. Paul is led by Fr. Odo and includes an optional add-on extension of traveling to Greece, May 24 to 28. Space is limited!