Thomas Merton - ProfilesArchive

About Me

I was a trappist monk, very involved in social justice, also a literary. in the mid 50's I stood on the corner of 4th and ali in Louisville, ky and had an epiphany

My Interests

Among many things I have a deep interest in meditation and studying The Holy Scriptures

I'd like to meet:

I love everyone so I would like to meet all people

Music:

The Psalms and Gregorian chants

Books:

This is a list of the 70 books I wrote and the years they were published1944 - Thirty Poems 1946 - A Man in the Divided Sea 1948 - The Seven Storey Mountain 1949 - Seeds of Contemplation; The Tears of the Blind Lions; The Waters of Siloe 1951 - The Ascent of Truth 1953 - The Sign of Jonas 1955 - No Man Is An Island 1956 - The Living Bread 1957 - The Silent Life; The Strange Islands 1958 - Thoughts in Solitude 1959 - The Secular Journal of Thomas Merton; Selected Poems 1960 - Disputed Questions; The Wisdom of the Desert 1961 - The New Man 1962 - New Seeds of Contemplation 1964 - Seeds of Destruction 1965 - Gandhi on Non-Violence; The Way of Chuang Tzu; Seasons of Celebration 1966 - Raids on the Unspeakable; Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander 1967 - Mystics and Zen Masters 1968 - Monks Pond; Cables to the Ace; Faith and Violence; Zen and the Birds of Appetite 1969 - My Argument with the Gestapo; Contemplative Prayer; The Geography of Lograire 1971 - Contemplation in a World of Action 1973 - The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton 1976 - Ishi Means Man 1977 - The Monastic Journey; the Collected Poems of Thomas Merton 1979 - Love and Living 1980 - The Non-Violent Alternative 1981 - The Literary Essays of Thomas Merton; Day of a Stranger; Introductions East and West: The Foreign Prefaces of Thomas Merton 1982 - Woods, Shore and Desert: A Notebook, May 1968 1985 - The Hidden Ground of Love: Letters on Religious Experience and Social Concerns (Letters, I) 1988 - A Vow of Conversation: Journals 1964-1965; Thomas Merton in Alaska: The Alaskan Conferences, Journals and Letters 1989 - The Road to Joy: Letter to New and Old Friends (Letters, II) 1990 - The School of Charity: Letters on Religious Renewal and Spiritual Direction (Letters, III) 1993 - The Courage for Truth: Letters to Writers (Letters, IV) 1994 - Witness to Freedom: Letters in Times of Crisis (Letters, V) 1995 - Run to the Mountain: The Story of a Vocation (Journals, I: 1939-1941) 1996 - Entering the Silence: Becoming a Monk and Writer (Journals, II: 1941-1952) 1996 - A Search for Solitude: Pursuing the Monk's True Life (Journals, III: 1952-1960) 1996 - Turning Toward the World: The Pivotal Years (Journals, IV: 1960-1963) 1997 - Dancing in the Water of Life: Seeking Peace in the Hermitage (Journals, V: 1963-1965) 1997 - Learning to Love: Exploring Solitude and Freedom (Journals, VI: 1966-1967) 1998 - The Other Side of the Mountain: The End of the Journey (Journals, VII: 1967-1968) 1999 - The Intimate Merton: His Life From His Journals 2000 - Thomas Merton: Essential Writings

Heroes:

The Pope

My Blog

How Long We Wait -A Late December Meditation

How Long We Wait How long we wait, with minds as quiet as time,/ Like sentries on a tower./ How long we watch, by night, like the astronomers. Heaven, when will we hear you sing,/ Arising from our gra...
Posted by Thomas Merton on Thu, 21 Dec 2006 11:54:00 PST

A Thanksgiving Thought

Perhaps the reason why so few men believe in God is that they have ceased to believe that even God can Love them. The man who is not afraid to admit everything he sees to be wrong with himself, and ye...
Posted by Thomas Merton on Thu, 23 Nov 2006 11:11:00 PST

Late July Meditations

There is in us an instinct for newness, for renewal, for a liberation of creative power. We seek to awaken in ourselves a force which really changes our lives from within. And yet the same instinct ...
Posted by Thomas Merton on Thu, 20 Jul 2006 08:59:00 PST

The thought for mid July

Life consists in learning to live on ones own, spontaneous, freewheeling: to do this one must recognize what is ones ownbe familiar and at home with oneself. This means basically learning who one is, ...
Posted by Thomas Merton on Thu, 13 Jul 2006 08:27:00 PST

4th of July reflection

Freedom of choice is not, itself, the perfection of liberty. But it helps us take our first step toward freedom or slavery, spontaneity or compulsion. The free man is the one whose choices have give...
Posted by Thomas Merton on Sun, 02 Jul 2006 10:11:00 PST

The Newest Thoughts

One of the chief obstacles to this perfection of selfless charity, is the selfish anxiety to get the most out of everything, to be a brilliant success in our own eyes and in the eyes of other men. We...
Posted by Thomas Merton on Sat, 03 Jun 2006 11:31:00 PST

reflection for this week

"Let no one hope to find in contemplation an escape from conflict, from anguish or from doubt. On the contrary, the deep, inexpressible certitude of the contemplative experience awakens a tragic angu...
Posted by Thomas Merton on Wed, 08 Mar 2006 09:25:00 PST

homily given on the 37th anniversary of my death

Homily on the Occasion of the 37 Anniversary of Thomas Merton's Death Delivered by Mr. Michael Brown December 10, 2005 Cathedral of the Assumption Louisville, KY On this Third Sunday of Adven...
Posted by Thomas Merton on Sun, 08 Jan 2006 05:59:00 PST

weekly prayer

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 that I am f...
Posted by Thomas Merton on Sun, 08 Jan 2006 05:55:00 PST

weekly reflection december 26th

"There must be a time of day when the man who makes plans forgets his plans, and acts as if he had no plans at all. There must be a time of day when the man who has to speak falls very silen...
Posted by Thomas Merton on Thu, 29 Dec 2005 12:51:00 PST