MEDIA RELEASES

Dominican University’s Siena Center will present its second annual Caritas et Veritas lecture on Monday, January 28 at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Priory Campus, 7200 W. Division Street, River Forest. Paul Murray, OP, will deliver a lecture titled “Dominican Wisdom and the Dark Night” during which he will examine aspects of the Dominican contemplative experience, including the “dark night” or the feeling of being abandoned by God.

Murray teaches at the University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome, where he is president of its Spirituality Institute. A noted theologian, poet and former poet laureate in his native Ireland, Murray has written four books of poetry and a number of books on spirituality. In his latest book, The New Wine of Dominican Spirituality: A Drink Called Happiness (2006), Murray looks at the first centuries of Dominican tradition, finding a profound joy and exuberance at the core of its spirituality.

The admission fee for this lecture is $10. Refreshments will be served following the lecture and books by the speaker will be available for purchase. For more information or to make reservations, please contact the Siena Center at (708) 714-9105 or www.siena.dom.edu.

Dominican University established the Siena Center to engage the critical issues of church and society in light of faith and scholarship. The center was named for St. Catherine of Siena, a 14th-century laywoman who worked for the reform of the church and justice in the world. Her passionate devotion to the central issues of church and society inspires the work of the center in its schedule of lectures, symposia, workshops, retreats, research and seminars.