Conference: Exploring the Sources – Toward a Theology of Prayer

21. Nov. 2025 - 22. Nov. 2025 Schloss Trumau

Two-Day Conference at ITI Catholic University
21–22 November 2025

ITI Catholic University warmly invites you to join us this November for a two-day academic conference on the theology of prayer. Titled Exploring the Sources: Toward a Theology of Prayer, the event will bring together theologians, scholars, and students to reflect on the foundations, expressions, and enduring significance of Christian prayer.

Through Scripture, liturgy, the arts, patristic and medieval thought, and systematic theology, participants will explore how the Church’s living tradition offers a rich and multifaceted understanding of prayer as the heart of Christian life.

This conference is not only for academics: students, clergy, and all those interested in deepening their understanding of Christian prayer are warmly invited to attend.

Conference Program
Friday, 21 November 2025

Session 1: Biblical Sources / Theology
• 9.00–9.15 – Introduction
• 9.15–10.00 – Fr. Johannes Cornides: “Sicut cervus: Psalm 42–43 as a Paradigm for Prayer”
• 10.00–10.45 – Dr. Vincent DeMeo: “Prayer in the New Testament: The Our Father as Eschatological Prayer of the New Covenant”
• 10.45–11.15 – Break
• 11.15–12.00 – Dr. Bernhard Dolna: “Prayer in the Writings of the Evangelist St. Luke”
• 12.15–13.00 – Divine Liturgy
• 13.00–14.30 – Lunch

Session 2: Liturgy and the Arts
• 14.30–15.15 – Fr. Edmund Waldstein: “The Liturgical Movement and the Common Good”
• 15.15–16.00 – Dr. Gundula Harand: “My Peace in Thy Will: The Praying Voice in T. S. Eliot’s Ash-Wednesday*
• 16.00–16.30 – Break
• 16.30–17.15 – Dr. Michaela Hastetter: “The Sound of Jesus Praying in the Garden in Passio of Arvo Pärt”

Session 3: Church Fathers and Medieval Theology
• 17.15–17.45 – Dr. Timothy Kelly: “Christian Prayer in Light of St Augustine’s Doctrine of the ‘totus Christus’”
• 18.00 – Speaker’s Dinner

Saturday, 22 November 2025

Session 3 (continued): Church Fathers and Medieval Theology
• 9.00–9.45 – Fr. Ephräm Lomidze: “Isaac of Nineveh and the Persian Monastic Tradition of Prayer”
• 9.45–10.30 – Fr. Jean-Yves Brachet: “Prayer in the Summa Theologiae: The Virtue of Religion”
• 10.30–11.00 – Break

Session 4: Modern / Systematic Theology
• 11.00–11.45 – Dr. Simon Maria Kopf: “Prayer, Petitions, and Predestination”
• 12.15–13.00 – Divine Liturgy
• 13.00–14.30 – Lunch
• 14.30–15.15 – Fr. Thomas Möllenbeck: “Gethsemani: Praying ‘Thy will be done’ as a Test of Judaeo-Christian Religion”
• 15.15–16.00 – Dr. Andrei Gotia: “Writing Latin Hymns in the 21st Century”
• 16.00–16.15 – Concluding Remarks

Join us for a rich encounter with the sources of Christian prayer, in dialogue with Scripture, tradition, and contemporary theological reflection.

Download Full Program Here



Open Registration Form Here