Revolution, Revelation and Revival: 19th Century with Joseph Pearce
2023-03-27 19:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Mercy Hall, 90 Concord St., Nashua, NH, 03060, United States
The History of Christendom:
An Eight-part Lecture Series
with Joseph Pearce,
St. John Henry Newman Visiting Chair in Catholic Studies at Thomas More College
Part VII:
Revolution, Revelation and Revival: 19th Century
March 27, 2023 | 7:30 PM | Mercy Hall: 90 Concord St, Nashua NH

Join us as renowned Catholic author Joseph Pearce lectures on the history of Christendom based on his forthcoming book, The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful: History in Three Dimensions. Each lecture will weave the tapestry of the centuries with the goodness of the saints, the wickedness of the worldly, and the beauty of great art. These lectures will be live-streamed and recorded.

October 10: The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful: History in Three Dimensions
November 14: From Christ to Constantine: The Early Church
December 12: The Death and Resurrection of Rome: 5th-10th Century
January 23: The Best and Worst of Times: 11th-13th Century
February 6: Rupture and Reformation: 14th-16th Century
March 6: Religion and Superstition: 17th-18th Century
March 27: Revolution, Revelation and Revival: 19th Century
April 17: Wars of Irreligion: 20th Century

Joseph Pearce is an internationally-acclaimed author and the Director of Book Publishing at the Augustine Institute. He is the editor of the St. Austin Review, series editor of the Ignatius Critical Editions, and senior contributor at the Imaginative Conservative.

“It is truly an honour to have been named the St. John Henry Newman Visiting Chair in Catholic Studies at Thomas More College. I can think of no other faithful Catholic college with which I’d rather be associated.”
–Joseph Pearce
Image: Between Berlin and Rome by Wilhelm Scholtz-Kladderadatsch

Wars of Irreligion: 20th Century with Joseph Pearce
2023-04-17 19:30 - 20:30 | Mercy Hall, 90 Concord St., Nashua, NH, 03060, United States
The History of Christendom:
An Eight-part Lecture Series
with Joseph Pearce,
St. John Henry Newman Visiting Chair in Catholic Studies at Thomas More College
Part VIII:
Wars of Irreligion: 20th Century
April 17, 2023 | 7:30 PM | Mercy Hall: 90 Concord St, Nashua NH

Join us as renowned Catholic author Joseph Pearce lectures on the history of Christendom based on his forthcoming book, The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful: History in Three Dimensions. Each lecture will weave the tapestry of the centuries with the goodness of the saints, the wickedness of the worldly, and the beauty of great art. These lectures will be live-streamed and recorded.

October 10: The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful: History in Three Dimensions
November 14: From Christ to Constantine: The Early Church
December 12: The Death and Resurrection of Rome: 5th-10th Century
January 23: The Best and Worst of Times: 11th-13th Century
February 6: Rupture and Reformation: 14th-16th Century
March 6: Religion and Superstition: 17th-18th Century
March 27: Revolution, Revelation and Revival: 19th Century
April 17: Wars of Irreligion: 20th Century

Joseph Pearce is an internationally-acclaimed author and the Director of Book Publishing at the Augustine Institute. He is the editor of the St. Austin Review, series editor of the Ignatius Critical Editions, and senior contributor at the Imaginative Conservative.

“It is truly an honour to have been named the St. John Henry Newman Visiting Chair in Catholic Studies at Thomas More College. I can think of no other faithful Catholic college with which I’d rather be associated.”
–Joseph Pearce

Image: Knights of Columbus by William Balfour-Ker
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USZC4-10131 (color film copy transparency)

Do We Still Hold These Truths? A Presidents’ Day Roundtable Discussion on Faith and Politics
2024-02-19 19:30 - 21:00 | Mercy Hall, 90 Concord St., Nashua, NH, 03060, United States
Mark this Presidents’ Day by joining Thomas More College for an evening panel discussion featuring prominent Catholic writers and public figures Robert Royal, Joseph Pearce, and William Fahey, moderated by veteran journalist and writer Phil Lawler.

—Robert Royal, “Does America make sense without God?”
—Joseph Pearce, “Patriotism vs. Nationalism: What’s the difference?”
—William Fahey, “Is Patriotism an obligation?”

Following Phil Lawler’s opening remarks and the panelists’ brief presentations, the session will conclude with a lively discussion and Q&A session.

In this time of national uncertainty and confusion, spend an evening getting your political and spiritual bearings with insightful commentary and discussion on some of the most pressing issues of our time.

“[T]he consideration that human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected, will always continue to prompt me to promote the progress of the former, by inculcating the practice of the latter.”
—George Washington, 1789

“There is a need for authentically Christian politicians but, even more so, for lay faithful who witness to Christ and the Gospel in the civil and political community.”
—Pope Benedict XVI, 2010

Robert Royal is a Visiting Fellow and Emeritus St. John Henry Newman Visiting Chair in Catholic Studies at Thomas More College. He is founder and president of the Faith & Reason Institute in Washington, D.C. and Editor-in-Chief of The Catholic Thing. His most recent books are The God That Did Not Fail: How Religion Built and Sustains the West, A Deeper Vision: The Catholic Intellectual Tradition in the Twentieth Century, and Columbus and the Crisis of the West.

Joseph Pearce is a Visiting Fellow and Emeritus St. John Henry Newman Visiting Chair in Catholic Studies at Thomas More College. He is an internationally-acclaimed author and the Director of Book Publishing at the Augustine Institute. Additionally, he also serves as the editor of the St. Austin Review, series editor of the Ignatius Critical Editions, and senior contributor at the Imaginative Conservative.

William E. Fahey is President of Thomas More College. His interests extend from the Classical World through the Fathers of the Church to the importance of Agrarian thought and traditional craftsmanship on past and contemporary culture. He has been published in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review, The St. Austin Review, and Faith & Reason, among others.

Phil Lawler is a Visiting Fellow at Thomas More College and serves as the Program Director of the Center for the Restoration of Christian Culture. He is the editor of Catholic World News, the first English-language Catholic news service operating on the Internet, which he founded in 1995. He also offers analysis and commentary on CatholicCulture.org.

Newman on True Development of Doctrine—and Its Corruptions
2024-02-20 19:30 - 21:00 | Mercy Hall, 90 Concord St., Nashua, NH, 03060, United States
Join us for “Newman on True Development of Doctrine—and Its Corruptions” with Robert Royal on Tuesday, February 20, 2024 at 7:30pm.

Robert Royal is a Visiting Fellow and Emeritus St. John Henry Newman Visiting Chair in Catholic Studies at Thomas More College. He is founder and president of the Faith & Reason Institute in Washington, D.C. and Editor-in-Chief of The Catholic Thing. His most recent books are The God That Did Not Fail: How Religion Built and Sustains the West, A Deeper Vision: The Catholic Intellectual Tradition in the Twentieth Century, and Columbus and the Crisis of the West.

Newman's Idea of Conscience, and Ours (Mercy Hall)
2024-03-19 19:30 - 21:00 | Mercy Hall, 90 Concord St., Nashua, NH, 03060, United States
Join us for “Newman’s Idea of Conscience, and Ours” with Robert Royal on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 at 7:30pm.

Robert Royal is a Visiting Fellow and Emeritus St. John Henry Newman Visiting Chair in Catholic Studies at Thomas More College. He is founder and president of the Faith & Reason Institute in Washington, D.C. and Editor-in-Chief of The Catholic Thing. His most recent books are The God That Did Not Fail: How Religion Built and Sustains the West, A Deeper Vision: The Catholic Intellectual Tradition in the Twentieth Century, and Columbus and the Crisis of the West.

Newman's Idea of Conscience, and Ours (Abbey)
2024-03-20 19:30 - 21:00 | NH
Join us for “Newman’s Idea of Conscience, and Ours” with Robert Royal on Wednesday, March 20, 2024 at 7:30pm. This lecture will take place at St. Benedict Abbey: 252 Still River Road, Still River, MA 01467.
This event will not be livestreamed or recorded; however, you have the option to join us virtually for the previous evening’s lecture on the same topic (please register here).

Robert Royal is a Visiting Fellow and Emeritus St. John Henry Newman Visiting Chair in Catholic Studies at Thomas More College. He is founder and president of the Faith & Reason Institute in Washington, D.C. and Editor-in-Chief of The Catholic Thing. His most recent books are The God That Did Not Fail: How Religion Built and Sustains the West, A Deeper Vision: The Catholic Intellectual Tradition in the Twentieth Century, and Columbus and the Crisis of the West.

Image: Herbert Rose Barraud

Poetry Reading with James Matthew Wilson and Michael Yost
2024-10-02 19:30 - 21:30 | Mercy Hall, 90 Concord St., Nashua, NH, 03060, United States
Join us for an evening with James Matthew Wilson, one of America’s foremost living Catholic poets, as he reads from his latest collection, Saint Thomas and the Forbidden Birds (Word on Fire, 2024). Dana Gioia calls Wilson “the most conspicuously talented young poet-critic in American Catholic letters.”
Joining James Matthew Wilson will be emerging poet Michael Yost, a Thomas More College alumnus who serves as Admissions Director for the College. Michael recently completed his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing under Professor Wilson’s guidance. He will be reading from his Master’s Thesis collection, “The Death of Odysseus & Other Poems.”
Come listen and learn from two men at the vanguard of a renewal of Catholic poetry in America.

James Matthew Wilson is the Cullen Foundation Chair in English Literature and the founding director of the MFA program in Creative Writing at the University of Saint Thomas. The author of fourteen books, his most recent collection of poems is Saint Thomas and the Forbidden Birds (Word on Fire, 2024). The Strangeness of the Good (2020), won the poetry book of the year award from the Catholic Media Awards. The Dallas Institute of Humanities awarded him the Hiett Prize in 2017; Memoria College gave him the Parnassus Prize in 2022; and the Conference on Christianity and Literature twice gave him the Lionel Basney Award. In addition to his role at the University of Saint Thomas, he serves as poet-in-residence of the Benedict XVI Institute, scholar-in-residence of Aquinas College, editor of Colosseum Books, and poetry editor of Modern Age magazine.

A native of New England, Michael Yost graduated from Thomas More College in the class of 2018. He received his degree as a Master of Fine Arts from the University of St. Thomas in Houston Texas, where he studied under James Matthew Wilson, and wrote his thesis under the guidance of the poet and critic Timothy Steele. Mr. Yost’s poems and essays have appeared online in various places, including First Things, Dappled Things, and The University Bookman. You can also find Mr. Yost’s work on his Substack, The Weight of Form. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and four children.

Live Local or Die: Coming Home to Catholic Social Teaching
2024-10-15 19:30 - 21:30 | Mercy Hall, 90 Concord St., Nashua, NH, 03060, United States
Are you becoming a slave to next-day shipping and cell phone screens? Have you ever wanted to learn how to slaughter a pig or make sourdough? Have you ever walked the trails and byways of your hometown—or even the full extent of your own property?
Join us for a lively discussion of what it truly means to live local with four contributors to the recently-released Localism: Coming Home to Catholic Social Teaching (Sophia Institute Press, 2024).
William Fahey (Thomas More College), Max Becher (First Steps Farm), Michael Dominic Taylor (Thomas More College), and Jason Craig (St. Joseph’s Farm) will inform, challenge, and provoke us before opening up the floor to questions and conversation.
Attendees will walk away with a renewed appreciation for their local communities, fresh ideas both philosophical and practical, and the inspiration to implement true Catholic Social Teaching in their lives, homes, and communities. Copies of Localism will also be available, as will local provender.

William Fahey is the third president of Thomas More College. On the natural level, he attributes his successes to the excellent counsel of family and friends, and to the guiding principle that a Catholic liberal arts education is truly an excellent foundation for all human action. His scholarly interests extend from the Classical World through the Fathers of the Church to the importance of Agrarian thought and traditional craftsmanship on past and contemporary culture. Dr. Fahey is a Benedictine Oblate with the Monastery of Our Lady of the Annunciation, and he enjoys the natural beauties of the region through gardening, hunting, hiking, and sailing.

Max Becher is a homesteader and writer living in Central Maine. He holds a Masters in Theology from the International Theological Institute, writing his thesis on principles of agriculture in Catholic Social Teaching. Mr. Becher ran a small farm in California from 2014–2018 before moving to Maine in pursuit of a more rural homesteading life with his wife and three children. He has served on the board of directors of Catholic Rural Life in St. Paul MN, and authored articles on rural life for their publications.

Michael Dominic Taylor grew up in rural Connecticut, where he was an active outdoorsman. He spent his summers sailing and lobster fishing on the coast of Maine. He is the author of The Foundations of Nature: Metaphysics of Gift for an Integral Ecological Ethic (Cascade, 2020), which, in 2021, was a recipient of the Expanded Reason Award given by the Joseph Ratzinger Foundation (the Vatican) and the Francisco de Vitoria University (Madrid). Dr. Taylor writes on bioethics, environmental ethics, transhumanism, solidarity, economics, and integral ecology. He also loves sailing, hiking, camping, farmers’ markets, and good conversation.

Jason Craig, married and father of 8, writes and works from a small dairy operation in Western NC. He is a first generation, part-time farmer with extensive experience with pigs, cows, and gardening. With degrees in horticulture and theology, Mr. Craig brings together a coherent philosophical foundation for living on the land and the need to consider the cultural shift required to make the move.

An Evening of Poetry and Fiction with Sally Thomas
2025-02-04 19:30 - 21:00 | Mercy Hall, 90 Concord St., Nashua, NH, 03060, United States
Sally Thomas, as Micah Mattix recently observed, “is quietly establishing herself as one of our finest writers.” Her full-length volume of poetry, Motherland (2020), was a finalist for the Able Muse Book Award. She is the author of the novel, Works of Mercy, the recent short story collection, The Blackbird and Other Stories, and the forthcoming volume of poetry, Among the Living: Poems.
Join us at Mercy Hall on Tuesday, February 4, 2025 at 7:30 PM to hear Thomas read poems from Motherland and Among the Living: Poems, as well as excerpts from her fiction. She will also share her thoughts on being a Catholic poet and fiction writer today.
As associate poetry editor for the New York Sun from 2022 to 2024, Thomas is co-founder, with Joseph Bottum, of the Poems Ancient and Modern Substack newsletter, for which she writes regularly. She lives with her family in North Carolina.
“Like Eudora Welty, Sally Thomas uses a small scale to great effect in The Blackbird and Other Stories, capturing the strange movements of the human heart with astonishing subtlety. It is one of the finest collections of short fiction in years, and Thomas is quietly establishing herself as one of our finest writers.” –Micah Mattix, Poetry Editor at First Things and Professor of English at Regent University

Image: photo by Martin Sattler from Freerange Stock

Living an Intentional Life: Work, Leisure, and the Problem of Time with Dr. John Cuddeback
2025-02-10 19:30 - 21:00 | Mercy Hall, 90 Concord St., Nashua, NH, 03060, United States
Join us at the Center on Monday, February 10, 2025 at 7:30 PM for a lecture by John Cuddeback entitled, “Living an Intentional Life: Work, Leisure, and the Problem of Time.”

Dr. John Cuddeback teaches philosophy at Christendom College and is the founder of LifeCraft, a community project which focuses on issues relating to household, friendship, work, and stewardship.
He writes of his mission for LifeCraft:
“I have known the struggles of being a husband, father, friend, employee, and citizen in very confusing times. The travails of the household—as experienced by husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, children, and others—especially consume my attention and are close to my heart. My search is for refreshing and revitalizing waters from a good place. Peaceful yet challenging, silent but powerful, old as the hills and exactly what we need today. I want to reconnect with what we already know, or at least that we can know. My goal is a more fully human life, in its many facets, lived together in community and in life-giving relationships.”
Image: Boys in a Dory, Winslow Homer. Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Contemporary Issues in Bioethics: A Panel Discussion with Joseph Meaney, Matt Vallière, and Timothy Flanigan
2025-03-10 19:30 - 21:00 | Mercy Hall, 90 Concord St., Nashua, NH, 03060, United States
Come join us for a discussion of some of the most contentious and pressing bioethical issues today. Advanced directives, brain death, assisted suicide, in-vitro fertilization, biomedical research—Thomas More College has assembled renowned national experts from the bioethical and medical community to help us navigate some of the most vexing bioethical issues of our age.
Dr. Joseph Meaney is the Past President and Senior Fellow of the National Catholic Bioethics Center. Matt Vallière is the Executive Director of the Patients Rights Action Fund (PRAF), a national, secular, non-partisan leader defending the rights of patients, people with disabilities, the elderly, and the poor from the threat of legalized assisted suicide. Dr. Timothy Flanigan is a professor of medicine and health services, policy and practice at Brown University and the founder of the Inklings Project.
7:30 – 8:15 PM: Presentations
8:15 – 9:00 PM: Q & A

Joseph Meaney: “Brain Death, Advanced Directives and Other Bioethical Questions”
Joseph Meaney is a Senior Fellow and Past President of the National Catholic Bioethics Center. He received his PhD in bioethics from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome, where his dissertation topic was Conscience and Health Care: A Bioethical Analysis. Dr. Meaney was director of international outreach and expansion for Human Life International (HLI) and is a leading expert on the international pro-life and family movement. His popular articles have appeared in the National Catholic Register, Crux, Inside Catholic, Crisis Magazine, Inside the Vatican, and many other publications.

Matt Vallière: “Assisted Suicide—A Maleficent in Autonomy’s Clothing”
Matt Vallière is the Executive Director of the Patients Rights Action Fund (PRAF), a national, secular, non-partisan leader defending the rights of patients, people with disabilities, our elders, and the poor from the threat of legalized assisted suicide. He proudly serves as a volunteer emergency medical services first responder. As an experienced caregiver to people with life-threatening disabilities, Mr. Vallière is a tireless advocate for the rights of patients and people with disabilities, both in the medical setting and the public square.

Timothy Flanigan: “Chronic Illness and Patient Autonomy”
Dr. Timothy Flanigan is Professor of Medicine in Infectious Diseases at the Miriam and Rhode Island Hospitals and Brown Medical School. He has spearheaded both clinical care and clinical research programs for improved HIV treatment among marginalized communities. He is recognized for his community-based work with HIV-infected men and women in prisons and jails, and for providing educational support for children of incarcerated parents. Dr. Flanigan is the founder of The Inklings Project and a permanent deacon in the Catholic Diocese of Providence.

Moderator: Dr. William Fahey, President of Thomas More College of Liberal Arts

CANCELED: Mentors and Heroes of Joseph Ratzinger's Youth with Tracey Rowland
2025-03-31 | Mercy Hall, 90 Concord St., Nashua, NH, 03060, United States
This event has been canceled and will hopefully be rescheduled in an online format at a later date. Registered participants have been emailed. Thank you for your understanding!

For all great leaders and scholars there is usually a backstory, some cultural milieu in which they were nurtured that explains how they came to be such a significant figure on the stage of the world. This lecture takes us backstage to the Catholic scholars of inter-war Germany who were the mentors and intellectual heroes of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI’s youth.
Professor Tracey Rowland holds the St. John Paul II Chair of Theology at the University of Notre Dame (Australia). She has a civil doctorate in divinity from Cambridge University and a pontifical doctorate in sacred theology from the Lateran University. From 2014–2019 she was a member of the IXth International Theological Commission and she is currently a member of the Pontifical Academy of the Social Sciences. In 2020 she was awarded the Ratzinger Prize for Theology. She has published eight books, and edited another four, and has written over two hundred articles in journals. She is also the series editor of Joseph Ratzinger’s Collected Works in English to be published by Word on Fire Press and a member of the editorial board of the English-language edition of the Communio journal that was founded by Joseph Ratzinger, among others, in 1972. Her work intersects the fields of political philosophy, theories of culture, theological anthropology, and fundamental theology. Her most recent book is titled Unconformed to the World: Essays in Ecclesiology (Emmaus Academic, 2024).

Ida Friederike Görres: A Guide for Sanctity, Marriage, and Modern "Wrecking Crews" in the Church
2025-09-10 19:30 - 21:00 | Mercy Hall, 90 Concord St., Nashua, NH, 03060, United States
Come hear about the fascinating life, witness, and writings of Ida Friederike Görres, daughter of an Austro-Bohemian count and his Japanese wife. Her funeral eulogy was delivered by Fr. Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, and Bishop Erik Varden recently described her as “a crucial voice for the present moment.”
Formerly well-known but then neglected after her death, Görres (1901–1971) is now beginning to receive her due as one of the most prescient and eloquent defenders of the Catholic Faith in the twentieth century. Such seminal works as The Church in the Flesh (Cluny, 2023), John Henry Newman: A Life Sacrificed (Ignatius Press, 2024) and What Binds Marriage Forever (CUA Press, 2025) are being made available due to the translation efforts of Dr. Jennifer Bryson, Fellow in the Catholic Women’s Forum of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Join us as Dr. Bryson guides us not only through Görres’ life, but her insights into sanctity, marriage, and the future of the Church.

Jennifer S. Bryson, PhD holds a BA from Stanford University in Political Science, an MA from Yale University in History, and a PhD from Yale in Greco-Arabic and Islamic Studies. She has held positions at the Defense Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Army War College, the Hudson Institute, and the Witherspoon Institute.
An adult convert to Catholicism, she is also the Founder of the Sports Policy Initiative, a project advocating to get politics out of sports. Her work has appeared in Crisis Magazine, One Peter Five, The Lamp, and Public Discourse. She is a Contributor to Creation Theology Fellowship, where readers can find her Marvel, Believe, Care Creation Coloring Book, and her puppet show, “The Days of Creation.”

Image: Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, A Section of the Via Sacra, Rome

A Test of Faith: Surviving Captivity in Syria with Sam Goodwin
2025-09-29 19:30 - 21:00 | Mercy Hall, 90 Concord St., Nashua, NH, 03060, United States
Come hear Sam Goodwin’s extraordinary saga of survival, prayer, and divine intervention during his captivity in Syria.
Sam Goodwin is an American entrepreneur, bestselling author and international keynote speaker known for his thought leadership on embracing uncertainty. A former Division I hockey player, Sam co-founded a tech company and NGO in Singapore and is one of the few people to have traveled to all 193 countries in the world. His recent book, Saving Sam, recounts his experience of being taken hostage and wrongfully imprisoned in Syria.

Work, Conversion, and the Manual Arts with Jacob Imam
2025-10-13 19:30 - 21:00 | Mercy Hall, 90 Concord St., Nashua, NH, 03060, United States
How does someone raised in a Muslim household convert to Catholicism? What did the pagans think of manual labor? Why found a Catholic trade school? Join us as New Polity editor Jacob Imam shares his insights on conversion, work, and the trades.

Jacob Imam was born into a Muslim home and converted to Catholicism under the guidance of his godfather, Walter Hooper (C.S. Lewis’s personal secretary). An editor at New Polity, he graduated from the University of Oxford as a Marshall scholar with his master’s and doctorate, writing his dissertation on theology and economics. A popular speaker and writer on politics and economics, Imam has appeared on Pints with Aquinas, Fox News, and other media outlets. Imam is the founder and Provost of the College of St. Joseph the Worker, which combines a Catholic liberal arts education with the practicality of training in a skilled trade. He and his wife, Alice, have three young children.

Nolan Unmasked with John Johnson
2025-10-22 19:30 - 21:00 | Mercy Hall, 90 Concord St., Nashua, NH, 03060, United States
Has the most influential “Catholic theologian” of our time been hiding in plain sight? Come hear John Johnson’s take on filmmaker Christopher Nolan, arguably the most cerebral, complex storyteller working in film today.

John Johnson, a Catholic husband and father of seven kids (age 10 and under), founded Patmos Hosting and the Albertus Magnus Institute (AMI). Patmos was recently recognized as one of Newsweek’s top five tech startups to work for; John credits the success of Patmos to its foundations in first principles including the dignity of the human person, subsidiarity, anti-technocracy, and a pro-family work culture. AMI is an online college alternative that relentlessly promotes and provides traditional, liberal education to over 1,000 students.
John has degrees in philosophy and theology from St. Mary’s College and the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology. He and his family live on a homestead in the California foothills.

Mercy Hall Artisan Fair
2025-11-08 10:30 - 15:00 | Mercy Hall, 90 Concord St., Nashua, NH, 03060, United States
Support local artisans in a historic setting. Handmade items, freshwater pearl jewelry, Rosaries, religious art, woodworking, and more!

The Virtues as Super Habits with Andrew Abela
2025-11-10 19:30 - 21:00 | Mercy Hall, 90 Concord St., Nashua, NH, 03060, United States
In this engaging and practical talk, Dr. Andrew Abela—Dean of the Busch School of Business at the Catholic University of America—reframes the classical virtues as super habits: uniquely human habits that strengthen our ability to govern our thoughts, actions, and feelings. Drawing on insights from philosophy, psychology, and everyday experience, Dr. Abela shows that virtues like gratitude, honesty, humility, and courage are not abstract ideals but trainable “mental muscles” that anyone can develop. Copies of Super Habits (Sophia Press, 2024) will be available for purchase and signing.

Dr. Andrew Abela is the founding Dean of the Busch School of Business, Professor of Marketing, and former Provost of the Catholic University of America. He is also a Faculty Affiliate at Harvard University’s Human Flourishing Program. His research has been published in several academic journals and in three books.
He is a frequent speaker on business ethics and cultivating virtue in organizations. Prior to his academic career, Dr. Abela was a brand manager at Procter & Gamble, management consultant with McKinsey & Company, and Managing Director at the Corporate Executive Board (now Gartner). He holds an MBA from the Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Switzerland and a PhD from the Darden Business School at the University of Virginia. He and his wife, Kathleen, live in Great Falls, Virginia and have been blessed with six children and two grandchildren.

TMC Choir Advent Concert
2025-12-05 19:00 - 21:00 | NH
The Thomas More College Choir, under the direction of Katherine Yost, will present its Advent Concert on Friday, December 5, 2025 at Saint Joseph Cathedral (Manchester, NH).
The concert, which is free to attend, will begin at 7:00 PM. We look forward to seeing you there!

Image: Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, The Flight into Egypt. Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Ghost Runner Book Launch with Phil Lawler
2025-12-16 19:30 - 21:00 | NH
Join us for the launch of Phil Lawler’s new book, Ghost Runner, from Sophia Institute Press.
One of America’s most respected Catholic writers and cultural critics, Lawler bursts onto the fiction scene with a riveting debut novel that plunges readers into the hidden battles of the Church in the 1980s. Lawler exposes beneath the surface of parish life and chancery politics a world of secrets, compromises, and spiritual warfare—where the faithful struggle to survive and a young priest discovers that he has a special mission—and powerful enemies.

Phil Lawler is editor of Catholic World News, the first English-language Catholic news service operating on the Internet, which he founded in 1995. His essays appear regularly on CatholicCulture.org as well as his own Substack.
Mr. Lawler has served as Director of Studies for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank based in Washington; as founder and president of a national organization of Catholic laity; and as editor of Crisis magazine. In 1986, he became the first layman to edit The Pilot, the Boston archdiocesan newspaper. From 1993 through 2005, he was editor of the international monthly magazine Catholic World Report. His essays, book reviews, and editorial columns have appeared in over 100 newspapers around the United States and abroad, including the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and Boston Globe. Ghost Runner is his first novel.
He and his wife Leila (the author of the best-selling Summa Domestica) have seven children and (at last count) twenty-two grandchildren. The Lawlers now live in central Massachusetts.

The Dignity of Dependence with Leah Libresco Sargeant
2026-02-11 19:30 - 21:00 | Mercy Hall, 90 Concord St., Nashua, NH, 03060, United States
No just society can be built on the foundation of a false anthropology. Our culture makes an idol of autonomy, which leads to a particular suspicion of women, children, and pregnancy—the entangled, dependent relationship that marks all of our beginnings. In The Dignity of Dependence, Leah Libresco Sargeant makes the case for a feminism that begins with women’s unique exposure to the needs of another, and explains how it can help all of us live fruitfully.

Leah Libresco Sargeant is the author of The Dignity of Dependence, as well as Arriving at Amen and Building the Benedict Option. She works on family policy in Washington, D.C. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and elsewhere. She runs the Substack Other Feminisms, focused on advocating for women in a world that makes an idol of autonomy.

Doctor of the Church and Co-Patron of Education: A Newman Symposium with Robert Royal and Edward Short
2026-02-16 19:00 - 21:00 | Mercy Hall, 90 Concord St., Nashua, NH, 03060, United States
In honor of St. John Henry Cardinal Newman being named a Doctor of the Church, please join us as Robert Royal and Edward Short offer a symposium on this great saint. Robert Royal will speak on “Newman’s Augustinian Heart” and Edward Short on “St. John Henry Newman and St. Thomas Aquinas: A Study in Apologetical Affinity.”

Robert Royal is editor-in-chief of The Catholic Thing and president of the Faith & Reason Institute in Washington, D.C. His most recent books are The Martyrs of the New Millennium: The Global Persecution of Christians in the Twenty-First Century, Columbus and the Crisis of the West, and A Deeper Vision: The Catholic Intellectual Tradition in the Twentieth Century. He was the inaugural John Henry Newman Visiting Chair in Catholic Studies at Thomas More College.

Edward Short is the Executive Director of the Chesterton Academy of Vero Beach and the author of the highly acclaimed trilogy on St John Henry Newman comprised of Newman and his Contemporaries, Newman and his Family, and Newman and his Critics. He is also the author of Newman and History and a critical edition of Newman’s Difficulties of Anglicans, Volume I. Bishop James Massa, Rector of Saint Joseph’s Seminary in New York hailed Mr. Short’s Newman scholarship as “a gift to the whole Church.” In addition, Mr. Short is the author of two collections of essays, Adventures in the Book Pages and What The Bells Sang. Of the latter, Lord Roberts, Churchill’s biographer said: “As well as being beautifully written and genuinely brave, this book is also wise. It is a remarkable testament to the breadth and profundity of the author’s expertise and interests, and the extraordinary depth of his reading. The polymathic Man of Letters might be a disappearing breed in our civilization, but Edward Short is holding out. He should be listed, like a piece of our architectural heritage.” A staunch pro-lifer, Mr. Short is also the author of Culture and Abortion. His essays and reviews appear regularly in Literary Review, City Journal, Catholic World Report, and The New Criterion. Mr. Short obtained his BA degree cum laude in history and art history at Hunter College in the City University of New York. He lives in Florida and New York with his wife and two young children.

Thirteen Novels Conservatives Will Love (But Probably Haven't Read): Book Discussion with Christopher Scalia
2026-03-11 19:30 - 21:00 | Mercy Hall, 90 Concord St., Nashua, NH, 03060, United States
You may have read The Scarlet Letter in high school, but have you ever read The Blithedale Romance, Hawthorne’s scathing fictional account of a New England utopian community gone wrong? Or Leif Unger’s lyrical Peace Like a River, which, as Scalia argues, offers profound insights on what it means to be a man?
Come join us for a “fireside chat” with AEI Senior Fellow Christopher Scalia as he serves up a baker’s dozen of outstanding and often overlooked English and American novels—novels with rich moral, cultural, and social lessons for our own troubled times.

Christopher J. Scalia is a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on literature, culture, and higher education.
His most recent book, 13 Novels Conservatives Will Love (but Probably Haven’t Read), is, in the words of Russell Kirk Center President (and former Thomas More College President) Jeffrey O. Nelson, “a reliable guide to younger readers, suspicious and wearied of politicized works of culture, exhorting them to reclaim their patrimony by making great literature central to their intellectual formation.”
A former English professor, Dr. Scalia specialized in 18th-century and early 19th-century British literature. His articles, essays, and reviews on literature, music, higher education, and other topics have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, USA Today, National Review, First Things, the Times Literary Supplement, and FoxNews.com, among other outlets.
Dr. Scalia is the coeditor of On Faith: Lessons from an American Believer (2019) and Scalia Speaks: Reflections on Law, Faith, and Life Well Lived (2017).

Gen Z, Gen Alpha, and the Future of the Conservative Movement with Kimberly Begg
2026-03-23 19:30 - 21:00 | Mercy Hall, 90 Concord St., Nashua, NH, 03060, United States
What happens when the conservative movement speaks a language today’s young people no longer recognize? In this talk, Kimberly Begg, president of the Clare Boothe Luce Center for Conservative Women, examines how the lived experiences of Gen Z and Gen Alpha differ sharply from those of leaders shaped by twentieth-century events—and why yesterday’s arguments no longer persuade. Drawing on her work with young women across the country, Begg explores how words like conservative, freedom, and truth no longer carry shared meaning for a generation formed by COVID lockdowns, the rise of transgender ideology, and a deep mistrust of authorities who demand conformity while denying reality. She argues that today’s young people are both dreamers and realists. They are not interested in fighting their parents’ battles. What they want is to chart their own path rooted in purpose and common sense. Our task is to meet that desire with humility—to earn their trust, pass on hard-earned wisdom, and help them build meaningful lives capable of sustaining a free society.

Kimberly Begg is president of the Clare Boothe Luce Center for Conservative Women. An attorney with more than 25 years of experience strengthening conservative causes, her long history with the Luce Center began in the 1990s when she was a student at Rutgers University. In 1997, she attended the Luce Center’s College Women’s Luncheon in Washington, DC and hosted a Luce campus lecture the following year.
She has been a regular speaker for the Luce Center since the 2000s and has served on the Center’s board of advisors and board of directors. She is the author of Unbreakable: Saints Who Inspired Saints to Moral Courage (TAN Books) and co-author with Mike Ortner of Catholic School Playbook (Word on Fire). She has served as vice president and general counsel of Young America’s Foundation and director of programs and general counsel of the Ortner Family Foundation. She helped found Young America’s Foundation’s Be Not Afraid seminar (originally, the Standing Up for Faith and Freedom seminar), an annual program for students at Catholic schools, in 2015.
From 2021 to 2024, she served as founding editor of Catholic School Playbook, a website documenting the best practices of thriving Catholic schools. She serves on the board of directors of Young America’s Foundation, the board of overseers of the Dominican House of Studies, and the DC board of regents of Thomas Aquinas College.
She lives in Herndon, Virginia, with her husband, Ian, and their five children.

Faith, Meaning, and the Catholic Writer with Cy Kellett
2026-04-15 19:30 - 21:00 | Mercy Hall, 90 Concord St., Nashua, NH, 03060, United States
This talk explores the writing approaches of G.K. Chesterton and Walker Percy, both of whom answered the confusions of modern life with wit, insight, and Christian faith. By considering their response to the modern search for meaning, we can reflect on what their work still has to say about literature, belief, and the calling of the Catholic writer today.

Cy Kellett is the host of Catholic Answers Live. He formerly hosted The Bright Side with Cy Kellett on the Immaculate Heart Radio network. Kellett and his wife, Missy, have three children.

Image courtesy of the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Ninth Annual Catholic Literature Conference
2026-04-25 08:00 - 15:00 | NH
Saturday, April 25, 2026 | 8:00 am – 3:00 pm
Montminy Hall, Ste. Marie Catholic Church, Manchester, New Hampshire

Join us for the largest annual Catholic literature conference in New England—if not the nation—as we explore foundational, neglected, and new works of American literature. Through engaging presentations on American novels, short stories, and poems, through fellowship and conversation, this conference will take stock of the “literary pulse” of America as we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Featuring:
Joseph Pearce on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Matthew Mehan on Nathaniel Hawthorne
James Matthew Wilson on his poetic sequence of Catholic America
Jeremy Beer on Booth Tarkington
Amy Fahey on Flannery O’Connor

Registration is now closed. Thank you!

Event: New Hampshire and Independence Book Launch with William Fahey
2026-04-29 19:30 - 21:00 | Mercy Hall, 90 Concord St., Nashua, NH, 03060, United States
Announcing New Hampshire and Independence: Rediscovered Writings from the Sons of the American Revolution, edited by William Fahey. Six groundbreaking essays by Sons of the American Revolution reveal the significance of New Hampshire’s role in the Revolution.
New Hampshire is one of the oldest American colonies and one of the tiniest, but its small size obscures the mighty importance of its role in the American War of Independence. New Hampshire was one of the first colonies to assert control over its own militia and seize gunpowder from imperial control. It sent more men to Bunker Hill than any other colony, created a state constitution, and declared independence months before the rest of America. The Granite State provided heroes and generals in every major military campaign and cast the decisive votes for the ratification of the country’s new constitution.
William Fahey reveals six penetrating and inspiring essays from the archives and records of the Sons of the American Revolution to bring this rousing tale to life.

William Edmund Fahey, PhD, is a Fellow and president of Thomas More College of Liberal Arts (Merrimack, New Hampshire). He has taught history and humanities for more than thirty years. He has pursued advanced studies in ancient and early modern military history. Fahey is an active member of several lineage organizations dedicated to supporting the study of early America, including the Sons of the American Revolution, the Society of the Cincinnati, and the Order of the Descendents of Loyalists and Patriots. In 2024, he was appointed the historian of the New Hampshire Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.

Image: Nation Makers by Howard Pyle
