Jonathan Montaldo

Jonathan Montaldo is a writer, editor, and a contemplative retreat presenter. His renditions of Thomas Merton’s writing include "A Year with Thomas Merton," "Dialogues with Silence," and "Choosing to Love the World: On Contemplation." He was the principal editor of "The Intimate Merton: His Life from His Journals.0" with Brother Patrick Hart of Gethsemani Abbey. He edited the second volume of Merton’s private journals, published in seven volumes by HarperCollins, under the title "Entering the Silence (1945-1959)".

Jonathan served as director of the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University, the official archive of the writer’s legacy. He was Associate Director for the Merton Institute for Contemplative Living in Louisville, Kentucky, for which he created "Bridges to Contemplative Living with Thomas Merton," a ten-booklet resource for small group dialogue. He also was the director and retreat master for Bethany Spring, the Merton Institute’s Retreat Center, one mile from Merton’s Our Lady of Gethsemani Abbey.

He narrated five audiobooks of Merton’s work: "New Seeds of Contemplation," "No Man Is An Island," "Thoughts in Solitude," "Contemplative Prayer," and "The Intimate Merton." He co-narrated "Praying with Thomas Merton," a two-set CD with the book’s editor and musician Dr. Kathleen Deignan of Iona College.

He served as Co-General Editor with publisher Gray Henry of Fons Vitae Publishing in Louisville, Kentucky, for the Merton and World Religions series in nine volumes. He also edited Fons Vitae’s We Are Already One: Reflections on Thomas Merton’s Centenary."

His current projects are writing a play on Thomas Merton, “It Ain’t Necessarily So” and a new book, "Contemplative Mentoring: Reading Thomas Merton’s Journals for Self-Development in Solitude or Community."

He writes a monthly reflection on a Sunday Gospel for the online English edition of the Vatican’s newspaper "L’Osservatore Romano."