Phyllis Zagano was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York, and grew up on Long Island. She holds th Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and has taught at Fordham, Boston, and Hofstra Universities. Her book, "Holy Saturday," won the College Theology Book Award and a First Place Catholic Press Association Award. Her book "Women & Catholicism" received a Second Place Catholic Press Association Book Award. In 2009 and 2015, she was a Fulbright Fellow to the Republic of Ireland. In 2012 she received the Voice of the Faithful Saint Catherine of Siena Distinguished Layperson Award. In 2014 she received the prestigious Isaac Hecker Award from the Paulist Center Community in Boston. In 2016, she was named by Pope Francis to the Papal Commission on Women in the Diaconate.

http://people.hofstra.edu/Phyllis_Zagano/

http://ncronline.org/blogs/just-catholic

Cassidy Hall (she/her/hers) (MA, MDiv, MTS) is an author, award-winning filmmaker, podcaster, and leading voice in contemplative spirituality. She is the cohost of the Encountering Silence podcast and the creator of the Contemplating Now and Queering Contemplation podcasts. Her films include In Pursuit of Silence and Day of a Stranger. Her forthcoming book, "Queering Contemplation, Finding Queerness in the Roots and Future of Contemplative Spirituality" is set for release in May of 2024. Cassidy is widely published and currently resides in Indianapolis, where she is studying for her DMin degree.

Throughout her time at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, she worked as a Teaching Assistant while studying for her MDiv and MTS degrees (December, 2021). Her MTS thesis is titled "Awakening Mysticism with the Scholarship of Three African American Women," and features the work of the Rev. Dr. Barbara A. Holmes, Spiritual Directors of Color Network Founder Therese Taylor Stinson, and Dr. Joy R. Bostic. During Cassidy’s time at seminary, she also served as the Secretary of the International Thomas Merton Society and continues to serve on the board of enfleshed.

In 2012, while working as a counselor and reading Thomas Merton’s "New Seeds of Contemplation," Cassidy made a pilgrimage to all seventeen Trappist/Cistercian Monasteries of the United States. While there, she wrote, interviewed monks and nuns, and photographed her entire experience within these seventeen spaces. Her personal quest for silence was written about in this Des Moines Register feature article by Mike Kilen.

Cassidy co-authored "Notes on Silence" (2018) with award-winning filmmaker Patrick Shen and has had her work featured in devotionals including most recently: Thirsty, and You Gave Me Drink; Homilies and Reflections for Cycle C, from Clear Faith Publishing (2021). Her essays have been published in the Christian Century, Convivium Journal, The Thomas Merton Seasonal, The Thomas Merton Annual (Vol. 32), and has been featured on The Huffington Post, Patheos, and the National Catholic Reporter.

Before pursuing her MDiv and MTS in Indianapolis, Cassidy lived in Los Angeles where she worked on the production team of the documentary feature film, In Pursuit of Silence. The film’s success on the festival circuit and beyond led to its worldwide theatrical release. Her directorial debut short-film, Day of a Stranger, paints an intimate portrait of Thomas Merton’s hermitage years and received the Audience Choice Award from Illuminate Film Festival.

Jim Knipper is publisher of Clear Faith Publishing, which is focused on publishing books with a spiritual foundation. Their first three books, a series of homilies, have received several awards and raised over $100,000 for various charities.

Deacon Jim graduated from the University of Scranton with a degree in chemistry and received a Master’s in Business in the Pharmaceutical Industry from Fairleigh Dickinson University in 1984. He received a Master’s in Theology from Georgian Court University in May 2015 and an honorary degree from that institution in May 2017. He is currently a member of the Board of Trustees for the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC.

Today, he divides his time between Marco Island, Florida and Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania with his wife, Teresa. He is the proud father of four sons and four grandchildren. He was ordained a deacon in 2008 in the Diocese of Trenton and is a member of St. Paul’s Catholic Church, Princeton, New Jersey, where he serves the parish. You can follow his preaching at http://teachbelief.blogspot.com/.