Three women, all parishioners at (now St.) John XXIII Catholic Center on the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville, Tenn., met in the fall of 2003 to discuss how they could continue the important spiritual ministry started by Father Terry Ryan, C.S.P., when he was pastor of the center.
About every three months during his tenure, Father Terry held daylong conferences on spirituality featuring the great mystics and saints known for their contemplative lives. The conferences had drawn a large group of devoted followers.
The three women — Ruth Queen Smith, pastoral associate at John XXIII, Bev Froning and Ghislaine Miller — decided to get a video from the Contemplative Outreach organization, the Christian contemplative prayer movement started by Trappist Father Thomas Keating and other monks at St. Joseph’s Monastery in Spencer, Mass.
They obtained the video, invited the people who had regularly attended Father Terry’s conferences and presented it to a group of about 40 people in December 2003. They started and ended the session with 20 minutes of silent prayer and following the video held small group discussions.
About 20 of those attending accepted an invitation to remain afterward to discuss continuing the workshops. They decided not only to keep the workshops but voted to hold them monthly.
They called the first five workshops “Springboards to Contemplation,” referring to a part of Father Keating’s video talk in which he said that besides Centering Prayer the Catholic Church throughout its history until the present had other “springboards to contemplation”: the Jesus Prayer (or Prayer of the Heart), icons, the rosary, lectio divina, and the adoration Blessed Sacrament.
Encouraged by Father Terry’s assurance that they could continue the ministry without him, they looked for local people who could speak on these subjects.
Ghislaine Miller gave a workshop on the Jesus Prayer, Ruth Queen Smith gave one on the rosary, Barbara Haning, PsyD, LCSW, on Lectio Divina, Charles Chandler on icons, and Marc Calvert, at the time president of the Discalced Carmelite Seculars, in Knoxville, on the Blessed Sacrament.
The conferences caught on and continued beyond the original five “springboards.” Father Terry returned to Knoxville in July of that year to give a presentation on “Caregiving and Contemplation,” a topic that featured his own experience in caring for his parents in their final days.
Ghislaine Miller came up with the idea of calling the group “Seekers of Silence” or SOS, a designation Ruth Queen Smith thought was very appropriate. The name stuck and now some simply refer to them as “Seekers.”
In the programs that have followed they have featured presenters, both local and from around the country. The speakers have included priests, religious sisters, nuns, college professors, health care professionals, and attorneys. The speakers have come from a variety of Christian denominations as well as from other faith traditions.
While the subjects have been extremely varied, all of the workshops have had a connection to spirituality and contemplation.
A large number of talks were on the saints and other mystics, such as “Teresa of Avila, teacher of contemplative Prayer,” “Sts. Francis and Clare: A spirituality for today,” “Evelyn Underhill: a mystic for our time,” “John of the Cross, Doctor of Light and Love.”
Many of the talks connected Christian practices to those of other traditions, such as: “Challenge and Inspiration from Other Religions,” “Yoga for Contemplatives,” “Mary in the Koran,” “Opening the Hand of Thought: Buddhist approaches to Deepening Contemplation.”
Several presentations focused on practical and/or social issues, as for example, “Music, Imagery and Prayer,” “Mary Ward and the Practice of Spiritual Discernment,” “Living with the Sabbath Rhythm,” “Preserving Quality Time for Friendship and Family Life,” “Roles of Right and Left brain on the Spiritual Path,” “I´m a Caregiver, Now What Do I Do?,” “Spirituality of the Poor, Social Justice: Prayer and Action,” “The Preferential Option for the Poor,” “Contemplation and the Non-Dual Mind.”
A few members of the group even went on a field trip to visit the replica of the Shrine to Our Lady Virgin of the Poor near South Pittsburg, Tenn. The group, including Catholics, a Unitarian, Methodists, an Episcopalian, and a Presbyterian, rode there in a large van loaned by a Presbyterian church.
Seekers of Silence met from February 2004 until October 2013 almost every month except for some breaks in the summer. All but a few of the meetings were held at John XXIII Catholic Center. Also, the group held several day-of-reflection sessions and a couple of three-day retreats.
In January 2014, the group decided to become an independent ecumenical organization and began meeting at the Church of the Savior United Church of Christ, 934 N. Weisgarber Road, in Knoxville.
Members of the group remain committed to their personal faith communities and/or traditions. In a letter to the Paulist Fathers, who staff St. John XXIII Catholic Center and University Parish, the SOS organizing team said in part:
United to our friends of other faiths, as well as others who do not belong to any church community, we strive to fulfill a double mission: to form an inclusive community, and to continue our commitment to periods of silence, in order to listen to God in prayer, to speakers on spiritual topics, and to each other in small group sharing.
By our choosing the way of unity in diversity, we hope to fulfill the desires of Father Hecker, the founder of the Paulists, and remain united to his ideals of outreach.
We are encouraged by Pope Francis, when he says: “In ecumenical relations it is important not only to know each other better, but also to recognize what the Spirit has sown in the other as a gift for us.” We want to follow his direction: “We must walk united with our differences: there is no other way to become one. This is the way of Jesus.”
We will continue to pray for Peace and Love in our world!