Sister Suzanne Toolan was born in Lansing Michigan. At St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, she was a beloved teacher, composer, and inspiring spiritual figure. In 1982, she turned the Sister’s novitiate into Mercy Center, a retreat and spirituality center, and introduced Taize Prayer and worship to the West Coast in 1983.

Stratford Caldecott is the director of the Centre for Faith and Culture in Oxford, England, and the author of All Things Made New, Beauty for Truth’s Sake, and Beauty in the Word.

Sue Lauber-Fleming, RN, MA, LCSW, is a psychotherapist in private practice with her husband, Patrick Fleming, in St. Louis. She trained extensively with family therapy pioneer Virginia Satir. She has over twenty years of experience working with individuals and groups and addressing a variety of psychological problems. The focus of her work has been bringing healing to adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse, including those abused by clergy. She is herself a survivor of clerical sexual abuse. In more recent years, she has been providing group and individual counseling to...

Susanna Tamaro is the author of ten books of fiction and nonfiction, published in more than forty countries. They include the novel Follow Your Heart; a memoir, Turning Home; a collection of short stories; and four children's books. Born in Trieste, Tamaro lives on a farm in Umbria.

Suzanne Buckley is manager of mission advancement at Mercy Center in Burlingame, California, where she completed her spiritual direction formation in 1992. In her previous corporate career she developed training programs for Fortune 500 companies. An educator, spiritual director, and supervisor of spiritual directors, she is an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco as well as program staff for the summer internship in spiritual direction at Mercy Center. Suzanne holds a B.S. in organizational development and an M.A. in applied spirituality.

T. Frank Kennedy, S.J., Ph.D., is currently rector of the Jesuit Community, the director of The Jesuit Institute, and the chairperson of the department of music, all at Boston College.

Fr. Sanks, Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at the Jesuit School, teaches courses in The Community Called Church, Readings in Liberation Theology, Theological Method, Theology of Paul Tillich and Vatican II Revisited. His course material often parallels his own professional interests, which include ecclesiology, theological method, liberation theology, Vatican II, ecumenism, and globalization and inculturation. Fr. Sanks has authored several books and articles; among them, Salt, Heaven and Light: The Community Called Church; Reading the Signs of the Times: Resources for Social and Cultural Analysis; The Church's Social Mission:...

Takeuchi Yoshinori was Professor Emeritus of Kyoto University. One of the leading figures of the Kyoto School of philosophy, he is the author of numerous works on Buddhism and his own Shin Buddhist faith, including The Heart of Buddhism: In Search of the Timeless Spirit of Primitive Buddhism.