Jonathan Montaldo has served as director of the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University in Kentucky and as president of the International Thomas Merton Society.  His topic today is titled: To Uncage His Voice: Thomas Merton's Inner Journey toward Spiritual Liberty

Merton's journal writing and his dialoguing with an extensive range of correspondents were "spiritual technologies" in which he discovered who he most truly was as he progressed in forming his identities as writer, monk and contemplative. His vocation to become an inclusive human being was an instance of gradual enlightenment "in Christ." His writing manifests his public vow to love the whole world by dialoging fearlessly with the totality of its otherness.

Jonathan Montaldo has edited significant collections of Merton's work including The Intimate Merton, Dialogues with Silence, A Year with Thomas Merton, and the ten-volume series for small group dialogue, Bridges to Contemplative Living with Thomas Merton.