Background
Mary Margaret Funk was born on October 15, 1943, in Lafayette, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States. She is a daughter of Bernard J. and Mary Funk.
Catholic University of America, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
In 1972 Mary Margaret Funk obtained a Master of Arts degree from Catholic University of America and had a further graduate study in 1983.
Indiana University at Bloomington, Bloomington, Indiana, United States
In 1979 Mary Margaret Funk gained a Master of Science degree from Indiana University at Bloomington.
(Cassian taught that real intimacy with God in prayer dema...)
Cassian taught that real intimacy with God in prayer demands to renounce one's former way of life, the thoughts belonging to that former way of life, and one's very idea of God. In Thoughts Matter, Mary Margaret Funk focuses on the second of these: renouncing the thoughts belonging to one's former way of life. Her eight chapters focus on different thoughts" - food, sex, anger, dejection, acedia (profound weariness of the soul), vainglory (taking credit for good actions), and pride. Funk explains well how failure to control these thoughts can undermine our spiritual life, and she instructs readers on how effectively to overcome these thoughts and to focus instead on thoughts in harmony with God's will. The result is an experience of joy, hope, and freedom from enslavement to our appetites. Readers will come away enlightened, strengthened, and inspired to delve more deeply into a life of intimacy with God.
https://www.amazon.com/Thoughts-Matter-Discovering-Spiritual-Journey/dp/0814635253/?tag=2022091-20
1997
(For the last seven years, Benedictine nun Sr. Mary Margar...)
For the last seven years, Benedictine nun Sr. Mary Margaret Funk has engaged in interfaith dialogue with American Muslims in an effort to bridge the gaps that seem to divide Christianity and Islam. Islam Is is the fruit of her reflection on Islam, a religion that has challenged and transformed her and in which she has found startling similarities to her own deeply held Catholic practice and beliefs. She examines the controversial issues of terrorism, women's rights, and economic power, and offers Christians everywhere and Catholics, in particular, a way of viewing Islam that is honest and authentic. The book concludes with an afterword by Islamic scholar Dr. Shahid Athar, who dialogues with and explores Sr. Mary Margaret's ideas.
https://www.amazon.com/Islam-Experience-Mary-Margaret-Funk/dp/1590560612/?tag=2022091-20
2003
(How can we tend the garden of our souls? Meg Funk turns t...)
How can we tend the garden of our souls? Meg Funk turns to the wisdom of the desert fathers for the means of removing obstacles to spiritual growth, which include thoughts of food, sex, possessions, anger, dejection, and pride, among other preoccupations. Redirecting thought away from such weeds in the garden of the spirit can lead to a greater awareness of God and purity of prayer. This method to mental discipline may seem impossible at first, Funk admits, but those who succeed at it are rewarded with a liberating experience as they come to observe and control individual thought processes. Drawing on the writings of the fifth-century monk John Cassian, Funk goes on to explore deeply using such tools as memory, imagination, and rational thinking-tools right out of early Christianity-to work on inner healing. She also explains how other positive tools, such as ceaseless prayer, manual labor, and isolation, may lead to uncluttering the mind and purifying the heart.
https://www.amazon.com/Tools-Matter-Beginning-Spiritual-Journey/dp/0814634974/?tag=2022091-20
2004
(This is the third volume of a trilogy that began with Tho...)
This is the third volume of a trilogy that began with Thoughts Matter: The Practice of the Spiritual Life and continued with Tools Matter for Practicing the Spiritual Life. Thoughts Matter was an update of the teaching of the fourth-century desert father John Cassian on the eight 'afflictive thoughts' that impede the spiritual life (thoughts about food, sex, 'things', anger, etc.). Tools Matter presented a wide variety of practices from the Christian tradition, both ancient and modern, that help us lift our thoughts in prayer: practices such as lectio divina, the Jesus Prayer, the Cloud of Unknowing, St Therese's Little Way, Jean-Pierre de Caussade's Practice of Self-Abandonment. The springboard for Humility Matters is the teaching on humility of St. Benedict, but the pool itself has been enriched by the fifteen years Sr. Funk spent in interreligious dialogue. 'Humility', she says, 'is the essence of being human.
https://www.amazon.com/Humility-Matters-Practicing-Spiritual-Life/dp/0826417280/?tag=2022091-20
2005
(Lectio Matters is a clear teaching from the Alexandrian S...)
Lectio Matters is a clear teaching from the Alexandrian School for catechumens (Didaskeleion) that is recommended by the Rule of Benedict.
https://www.amazon.com/Lectio-Matters-Revelatory-Scripture-Experience/dp/1441151699/?tag=2022091-20
2010
(In January 1984, Sr. Mary Margaret Funk, a Benedictine nu...)
In January 1984, Sr. Mary Margaret Funk, a Benedictine nun from Indiana, paid a visit to Maryknoll missionary nuns working in Bolivia. On what should have been a routine trip to the local town for a convocation ceremony, a flash flood swept away the jeep in which she, three nuns, a priest, and a disabled boy they had adopted were traveling. Only she and the priest survived. What happened that night catapulted Sr. Meg into twenty-five years of prayer and self-examination. She relentlessly explored her relationship with the transcendent and immanent God, the profundities of her religious tradition, her commitment to spiritual practice, and her very human failings. It was a journey that left her spiritually naked before the terrible love of God; a journey to keep one’s heart open to the transforming wounds of suffering. In the great tradition of spiritual confessions from Augustine to Thomas Merton’s The Seven-Storey Mountain, Into the Depths is a fearlessly honest and simply told account of one woman’s struggle to engage at the deepest levels with the most profound questions of faith.
https://www.amazon.com/Into-Depths-Journey-Loss-Vocation/dp/1590562356/?tag=2022091-20
2011
(After fifty years of monastic life, prayer, and spiritual...)
After fifty years of monastic life, prayer, and spiritual direction, Meg Funk knows what it means to listen with the ear of one's heart to the Holy Spirit. In Discernment Matters, she shares what she has learned. This book is a resource for those who want to learn and practice discernment as taught by the early monastic tradition. It includes an accessible summary of teachings about discernment from monastic traditions of late antiquity, consideration of important tools for making decisions today, and practical examples from the lives of St. Benedict and St. Patrick, as well as from the experience of monastics today. With this fifth volume of the Matters Series, Funk completes one of the most comprehensive presentations of the spiritual life available today, demonstrating why this inner work is both necessary and such a joy.
https://www.amazon.com/Discernment-Matters-Listening-Ear-Heart/dp/0814634699/?tag=2022091-20
2013
Mary Margaret Funk was born on October 15, 1943, in Lafayette, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States. She is a daughter of Bernard J. and Mary Funk.
In 1967 Mary Margaret Funk received a Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Benedict College. In 1972 she obtained a Master of Arts degree from Catholic University of America and had a further graduate study in 1983. In 1979 Funk gained a Master of Science degree from Indiana University at Bloomington.
In 1968 Mary Margaret Funk professed final vows as a Roman Catholic nun at the Order of St. Benedict. From 1969 to 1972 she was a teacher at parochial elementary school in Indianapolis. From 1969 to 1972 Mary served as a coordinator of Resource Center at the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, Office of Catholic Education, then a coordinator of directors of religious education from 1972 to 1977, and a director of religious education from 1977 to 1982.
From 1984 to 1985 Mary was an adult catechetical consultant in the Office of Religious Education, Archdiocese of Louisville, Kentucky. From 1985 to 1993 Funk was a prioress at the Our Lady of Grace Monastery, Beech Grove, and was appointed an executive director of monastic interreligious dialogue in 1994 until 2004. In this capacity she coordinated a number of events, notably the Gethsemani Encounters and Benedict's Dharma Conference. In 1995 she traveled to India and Tibet on the 6th Spiritual Exchange Program.
(How can we tend the garden of our souls? Meg Funk turns t...)
2004(Cassian taught that real intimacy with God in prayer dema...)
1997(This is the third volume of a trilogy that began with Tho...)
2005(After fifty years of monastic life, prayer, and spiritual...)
2013(Lectio Matters is a clear teaching from the Alexandrian S...)
2010(A practical and contemporary guide to training our though...)
1999(For the last seven years, Benedictine nun Sr. Mary Margar...)
2003(In January 1984, Sr. Mary Margaret Funk, a Benedictine nu...)
2011Mary Margaret Funk is a member of the Order of Saint Benedict.
Mary Margaret Funk is an advocate of interreligious dialogue. She has been in formal dialogue with people of the Hindu, Zen Buddhist, Islamic, Confucian, and Taoist traditions.