Old Voice for New Times

Thomas Merton in his cinderblock
hermitage at the Cisterican Monastery
of Gethsemane, Kentucky

The Trappist monk Father Louis, or Thomas Merton as he is commonly known, died 45 years ago. One would think that now in these fast paced times, in  a period considered by some as 'post-institutional religion', he would be 'done and over'. He could just be a little remembered phenom; the writing hermit whose literary voice helped to usher eager Catholics into the long awaited reforms of the Second Vatican Council and invited them to plumb the spiritual depths of the God relationship so that the renewal could take root. Then he died too young, only age 53, victim of accidental electrocution in Thailand during his exceptional Asian journey.

 

But Thomas Merton is still speaking to us and it is the very technological blessings of these fast-paced times that is making him available to us in surprisingly intimate ways. He has spoken to me these days with the force of a therapeutic jolting, a seismic jolt out of dysfunctional malaise.

 

Seeking spiritual guidance and intellectual enrichment I let my eyes wander through our community collection of recorded courses and lectures now in CD format. Through the years I had listened to poor quality audio tapes of Merton's lectures to his Novices. He was Novice Master for 15 years. Before cassette tapes became available, reel to reel tapes of his talks were informally circulated among contemplatives and laity eager to share his wisdom. As I looked at our current collection I sought titles of things I had not previously heard.

 

All of Merton's literary output and his recorded lectures are held by the Merton Legacy Trust and the Merton Center of Bellarmine University. (A lesson to us all - he died so young but had the wisdom to prepare his Literary Will some years before.) Now the gifts of technology are serving to make every recorded word Merton uttered available to anyone who wants to hear them today. CDs are available from NowYouKnowMedia.

 

These days I have been listening to a series of lectures Merton recorded alone in the natural surroundings of his own hermitage. These rather spontaneous talks were intended for the Sisters of Loretto whose motherhouse was nearby. They requested that Merton record his responses to written questions submitted by them. His tapes (reel to reel) would then be shared among the members of the Loretto community as part of their preparation for a General Chapter in 1967, a Chapter which would deal with the call to renewal of religious life.

 

He speaks in such a relaxed manner, in a tone suggesting that he considers the sisters to be an audience of his peers with whom he can be frank and to whom he has no need to condescend. Indeed, it was very touching to hear at the end of one lecture, " I will pray for you. I love you."

 

Merton's words in these lectures were so relevant to his times but it is striking to me that they have so much relevance for the situation in which we find ourselves today. His words have been gift to me and so appropriate for our current time as the Church, under the significant leadership of Pope Francis, seems to be emerging from a long period of self-absorption; denial of its own grievous faults; and its failure to preserve the value and significance of its spiritual voice for all people.

 

And Merton is so real. There is no Pollyanna here. He calls a spade a spade; warns of the pitfalls; acknowledges his own weakness; and acknowledges the price to be paid in taking the higher road. But he urges always that we must remain rooted in Jesus Christ and seeking the freedom of the children of God.

 

Why not revisit Merton? Why not visit him for the first time?

Welcoming the
Christ Child
into our
Fractured World

Most of the people I know - people who genuinely wish to spiritually welcome the newborn Jesus into their lives at Christmas - find themselves struggling to go to a place within, a place free of the demands, the craziness, the media assault, and the violence around us.

 

This poem written by the monk Thomas Merton over 50 years ago offers all of us some encouragement and comfort.

An Advent Song

Into this world, this demented inn,
in which there is absolutely no room
for Him. Christ has come uninvited.

He comes...
to the crisis before breakfast
the unexpected at dinner
in between the cranky toddler
and the exasperating senior citizen

when fatigue blights our day
worry disturbs our night
disappointment saps our strength
defeat destroys our hope...

into this demented inn
Jesus comes
and though uninvited..
stays.

Do check out our new

community website

RedNuns.org

Always a Teacher

Father Louis
Thomas Merton in his hermitage at Gethsemani
Trappist Abbey - Tennessee

Thomas Merton: 
Ever the Teacher

During these last five days 25 spiritual directors in the Archdiocese of New York have been spiritual companions to 30 participants in an on-line discernment retreat. The retreat was sponsored by the Religious Vocation Office of the Archdiocese under the direction of Sr. Deanne Sabetta, SND. I had the previlege of providing accompaniment to two women seriously committed to discerning God's will for their lives. It is not difficult to imagine their inspiration and their love for God. It is also possible to imagine their fears and uncertainty.

On this last day of the retreat, I offered each woman the following prayer written by Thomas Merton.

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you and I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing. And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road although I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death, I will fear not, for you are ever with me and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. Amen

Today marks the 42nd anniversary of Thomas Merton's death by accidental electrocution in Thailand, where he was participating in a meeting of representatives of the contemplative tradition from Western and Eastern faiths or philosophies. Just an hour or two before his death he had spoken to the group and ended his remarks with the words, "And now I will disappear." It is an irony that the mortal remains of this man, who had begun to feel the necessity of speaking out about the barbarism of war in relation to the conflict in Vietnam, was returned to the United States in a plane which also carried the bodies of American soldiers being returned to their families.

Merton was educated at Columbia University and always felt destined to teach and to write. He did not think that he would do either at the monastery he entered in the days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. But God and his Abbot had other plans for him. Within ten years his autobiography Seven Storey Mountain would be a monumental best seller in the secular world. He would write many other books which today continue to influence those who wish to follow the way of contemplative prayer and see, as Merton did, that the way to God is also the way to the true self. For fifteen years he would serve in the second most important position in any monastery, that of novice master, the monk entrusted with the training of its newest members. Most of his talks to novices and some talks given to his community were recorded and are still available from Credence. An outstanding segment for me in these recordings is Merton reading to the novices a letter he'd received from a friend who was present at the funeral of Martin Luther King. I love his humor, his manner with these young men and the wisdom and scholarship he shared with them and now with us via technological magic.

Merton remains not only a guide to contemplative monks and nuns but to all who are seriously persuing the contemplative path. He knew his imperfections and sinfulness and wrote about them. He wanted simplicity but lived a complicated life. He wanted to be alone with the Alone but needed to tell people about it. Yet his brilliance, his desire for God, his gifts as a communicator, the quality of his intellect and the depth of his spirituality keep me enthralled and inspired.