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The intimate Merton: his life from his journals
Thomas Merton's influence and appeal has reached far beyond the confines of his monastic world. The publication in 1948 of his classic memoir "The Seven Storey Mountain" established him as a highly successful writer, whose searingly honest and visionary writing has the power to inspire believers and non-believers alike. From within one of the strictest monastic orders he campaigned for social justice and peace, wrote poetry, a play and popular books on the spiritual life as well as essays engaging his passionate interests in contemplative traditions of the East and the West, world literature, politics and culture. His writing continues to have enormous influence on readers of all ages. This selection of journals (originally published in seven volumes) is a powerful chronological presentation of his life. By turns inspiringly profound, breathtakingly beautiful and hauntingly moving, Merton here describes the daily sadness and joys of his relentless search to know God.
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First published January 1, 1999
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About the author
Thomas Merton
554 books1,902 followersThomas Merton, religious name M. Louis, was an American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, mystic, poet, social activist and scholar of comparative religion. In December 1941 he entered the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani and in May 1949 he was ordained to priesthood. He was a member of the convent of the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, near Bardstown, Kentucky, living there from 1941 to his death.
Merton wrote more than 50 books in a period of 27 years, mostly on spirituality, social justice and a quiet pacifism, as well as scores of essays and reviews. Among Merton's most enduring works is his bestselling autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain (1948). His account of his spiritual journey inspired scores of World War II veterans, students, and teenagers to explore offerings of monasteries across the US. It is on National Review's list of the 100 best nonfiction books of the century.
Merton became a keen proponent of interfaith understanding, exploring Eastern religions through his study of mystic practice. His interfaith conversation, which preserved both Protestant and Catholic theological positions, helped to build mutual respect via their shared experiences at a period of heightened hostility. He is particularly known for having pioneered dialogue with prominent Asian spiritual figures, including the Dalai Lama XIV; Japanese writer D.T. Suzuki; Thai Buddhist monk Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, and Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh. He traveled extensively in the course of meeting with them and attending international conferences on religion. In addition, he wrote books on Zen Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, and how Christianity is related to them. This was highly unusual at the time in the United States, particularly within the religious orders.
Merton wrote more than 50 books in a period of 27 years, mostly on spirituality, social justice and a quiet pacifism, as well as scores of essays and reviews. Among Merton's most enduring works is his bestselling autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain (1948). His account of his spiritual journey inspired scores of World War II veterans, students, and teenagers to explore offerings of monasteries across the US. It is on National Review's list of the 100 best nonfiction books of the century.
Merton became a keen proponent of interfaith understanding, exploring Eastern religions through his study of mystic practice. His interfaith conversation, which preserved both Protestant and Catholic theological positions, helped to build mutual respect via their shared experiences at a period of heightened hostility. He is particularly known for having pioneered dialogue with prominent Asian spiritual figures, including the Dalai Lama XIV; Japanese writer D.T. Suzuki; Thai Buddhist monk Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, and Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh. He traveled extensively in the course of meeting with them and attending international conferences on religion. In addition, he wrote books on Zen Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, and how Christianity is related to them. This was highly unusual at the time in the United States, particularly within the religious orders.
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August 17, 2015
We live in a society whose whole policy is to excite every nerve in the human body and keep it at the highest pitch of artificial tension, to strain every human desire to the limit and to create as many new desires and synthetic passions as possible, in order to cater to them with the products of our factories and printing presses and movie studios and all the rest.― Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain.
Life is indeed odd. I have had this book for fifteen years and have never read it. If it hadn’t been for the fact that I was sorting out my biographies, I would in fact never have found it. I do have many books. I’m a lover of hardbacks. And why the journals of this individual were in my biographies’ section, well I’ll never know that. I should mention here that this book is an edited version of his seven journals and so I’m unsure what has been left out.
So brushing the dust from the book (I confess that I have innumerable spiders in my house and all the neighbours assure me that it is lucky and so I leave them with their intricate spiders webs scattered everywhere), I began to read it. It then occurred to me why I had purchased this book and that is because I have a penchant for monks, well actually nuns, monasteries and nunneries. Even now however I don’t know what it is about these individuals that fascinates me. I always felt that they were secured within their religious environment and thus secluded in their inner sanctums and consequently must be getting up to something, well apart from God anyway. Why I have this idea, well I’ll never know and I do know that it is most ungodly.
In fact digressing slightly and getting back to monks, I was in County Donegal, Ireland with a friend a few weeks ago and we went to the Ards Friary. Father Peter came towards us, beamed and said that he had been in Africa for thirty-eight years. For some obscure reason I had to touch him and so I grabbed at the rosary hanging from the cord at his waist. Mary laughed and tried to turn it into a joke, “Lynne, never touch a priest’s bits” and then she burst out laughing and so did Father Peter. In fact he came up to me and kissed me. Blessed me in fact. So now I have the blessing of God for my untoward acts.
Back to serious business. Thomas Merton, known in the monastery as Fr. Louis, was born on 31 January 1915 in Prades, southern France. The young Merton attended schools in France, England and the United States. This was an individual who achieved so much over the years, who wrote many books on the spiritual life but also campaigned for social justice and peace, wrote plays and essays and all within one of the strictest monastic orders.
It should be mentioned however that when he wrote the classic, The “Seven Storey Mountain” in 1948, he gave all of his proceeds to the monastery as no doubt he did with his other works.
In the climate of the times, for a man born in France who was raised with no particular religious influence and used to a life of desires, for a passionate convert to Catholicism, for a monk of the cloistered Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (Trappists), why did Merton say that? What did he mean?
As for this book I do feel that the views of his friends play some part in this:
What is the real face of Thomas Merton? When he painted the portrait of his friend Merton standing near the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky, Ed Rice deliberately blanked out Tom's face. He confessed to being confused. Over the years, the scholars, the followers, publishers, the church itself, had drawn a portrait that was unrecognizable, that of a plastic saint, a monk interested mainly in pulling nonbelievers, and believers in other faiths, into the one true religion. This was not the Merton that his friends from younger days and later days, Jim Knight and Ed Rice, knew. Merton was eminently human. He honored, and reached out to other faiths. He loved, he laughed. In essence he was a poet, who used words to help us understand the thousands of things we need to understand. This is his portrait, as recalled by his very close friends. Jim Knight.
Merton, from reading this edited version of his seven journals appeared to be a rather insecure individual. He seemed to be continually searching for his God but God never answered him. Here he was Thomas Merton (1915–1968), a Trappist monk, one of the most well-known Catholic writers of the 20th century. He was the author of more than sixty books, including the story of his conversion, Seven Storey Mountain, a modern spiritual classic. Yet Merton is a controversial figure. In the last year of his life, he wrote in his journal while traveling through Asia: He was turning towards Buddhism. It must have been a shock for his monastery.
But in the 1950s Merton’s earlier fascination with mysticism and other religions resurfaced as he began a long-term study of Buddhism, focusing upon Zen. He came into contact with the Japanese scholar on Zen, Daisetz T. Suzuki (1870–1966), who was greatly responsible for introducing Zen Buddhism to the West. They would correspond and some of their writings would become the essay collection "Zen and the Birds of Appetite," a discussion of the similarities and differences between Zen Buddhism and Christianity.
Last night I dreamed I was, temporarily, back at Gethsemani. I was dressed in a Buddhist monk’s habit, but with more black and red and gold, a "Zen habit," in color more Tibetan than Zen . . . I met some women in the corridor, visitors and students of Asian religion, to whom I was explaining I was a kind of Zen monk and Gelugpa together, when I woke up. (Asian Journal, 107).
His friend Rice says:The Merton I knew never lost his sense of fun. Even as a monk he kept a sense of irreverence, especially where social behavior was concerned. He felt a little embarrassed, as an example, over the elaborate Merton Library set up for him in Kentucky. He visited the Merton Room, where he had helped put together the materials representing his life, on the day before he left on what was to be his fatal trip to Asia. "A good place to cut a fart," he said to a friend.
I last saw Merton in the late summer of 1968, a few months before his death. I had been travelling around America working on a photographic book, and on my way home I stopped at Gethsemani and spent several days with him. He told me he finally was going to Asia, that he had been dreaming about it for a long time. He was not in good health, but he was still enthusiastic about the trip, looking forward to meeting holy people like the Dalai Lama. He had a long list of holy people to see in India, Japan, Vietnam and Indonesia. I believe he managed to see most of them.
Henry Miller also really admired him:
Merton loved to laugh more than anybody I've known. There was always a hint of mischief in his expression. In one of many letters to Henry Miller, he sent along a picture of himself; Miller responded: "What's amazing to me is that it seems to combine my mug and (Jean) Genet's (the French writer who had been a convicted thief and lowlife). You, too, have the look of an ex-convict, of one who had been through the fires.
Merton's death at the age of fifty-three was recorded on the front page of "The New York Times" alongside that of the Protestant theologian, Karl Barth, who had died in his sleep at the age of 82 at his home in Switzerland. Coincidentally, Merton had written about Karl Barth in his book, "Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander." "Karl Barth had a dream about Mozart," Merton said. In the dream, Barth had been appointed to examine Mozart on his theology, and he was trying to make things easy for him. But Mozart did not answer. Merton felt that Barth's dream was about Barth's salvation, and that Barth felt he would be saved more by the Mozart in himself than by theology. "Each day, for years," Merton wrote, "Barth played Mozart every morning before going to work on his dogma, unconsciously seeking to awaken, perhaps, the hidden sophianic Mozart in himself, the central wisdom that comes with the divine and cosmic music and is saved by love.
A rather interesting man. But did he really change to Buddhism and would that prove to be the cause of his unexpected death?
The fact that his early death was attributed to being electrocuted in his hotel in Bangkok? I wonder…
Life is indeed odd. I have had this book for fifteen years and have never read it. If it hadn’t been for the fact that I was sorting out my biographies, I would in fact never have found it. I do have many books. I’m a lover of hardbacks. And why the journals of this individual were in my biographies’ section, well I’ll never know that. I should mention here that this book is an edited version of his seven journals and so I’m unsure what has been left out.
So brushing the dust from the book (I confess that I have innumerable spiders in my house and all the neighbours assure me that it is lucky and so I leave them with their intricate spiders webs scattered everywhere), I began to read it. It then occurred to me why I had purchased this book and that is because I have a penchant for monks, well actually nuns, monasteries and nunneries. Even now however I don’t know what it is about these individuals that fascinates me. I always felt that they were secured within their religious environment and thus secluded in their inner sanctums and consequently must be getting up to something, well apart from God anyway. Why I have this idea, well I’ll never know and I do know that it is most ungodly.
In fact digressing slightly and getting back to monks, I was in County Donegal, Ireland with a friend a few weeks ago and we went to the Ards Friary. Father Peter came towards us, beamed and said that he had been in Africa for thirty-eight years. For some obscure reason I had to touch him and so I grabbed at the rosary hanging from the cord at his waist. Mary laughed and tried to turn it into a joke, “Lynne, never touch a priest’s bits” and then she burst out laughing and so did Father Peter. In fact he came up to me and kissed me. Blessed me in fact. So now I have the blessing of God for my untoward acts.
Back to serious business. Thomas Merton, known in the monastery as Fr. Louis, was born on 31 January 1915 in Prades, southern France. The young Merton attended schools in France, England and the United States. This was an individual who achieved so much over the years, who wrote many books on the spiritual life but also campaigned for social justice and peace, wrote plays and essays and all within one of the strictest monastic orders.
It should be mentioned however that when he wrote the classic, The “Seven Storey Mountain” in 1948, he gave all of his proceeds to the monastery as no doubt he did with his other works.
In the climate of the times, for a man born in France who was raised with no particular religious influence and used to a life of desires, for a passionate convert to Catholicism, for a monk of the cloistered Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (Trappists), why did Merton say that? What did he mean?
As for this book I do feel that the views of his friends play some part in this:
What is the real face of Thomas Merton? When he painted the portrait of his friend Merton standing near the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky, Ed Rice deliberately blanked out Tom's face. He confessed to being confused. Over the years, the scholars, the followers, publishers, the church itself, had drawn a portrait that was unrecognizable, that of a plastic saint, a monk interested mainly in pulling nonbelievers, and believers in other faiths, into the one true religion. This was not the Merton that his friends from younger days and later days, Jim Knight and Ed Rice, knew. Merton was eminently human. He honored, and reached out to other faiths. He loved, he laughed. In essence he was a poet, who used words to help us understand the thousands of things we need to understand. This is his portrait, as recalled by his very close friends. Jim Knight.
Merton, from reading this edited version of his seven journals appeared to be a rather insecure individual. He seemed to be continually searching for his God but God never answered him. Here he was Thomas Merton (1915–1968), a Trappist monk, one of the most well-known Catholic writers of the 20th century. He was the author of more than sixty books, including the story of his conversion, Seven Storey Mountain, a modern spiritual classic. Yet Merton is a controversial figure. In the last year of his life, he wrote in his journal while traveling through Asia: He was turning towards Buddhism. It must have been a shock for his monastery.
But in the 1950s Merton’s earlier fascination with mysticism and other religions resurfaced as he began a long-term study of Buddhism, focusing upon Zen. He came into contact with the Japanese scholar on Zen, Daisetz T. Suzuki (1870–1966), who was greatly responsible for introducing Zen Buddhism to the West. They would correspond and some of their writings would become the essay collection "Zen and the Birds of Appetite," a discussion of the similarities and differences between Zen Buddhism and Christianity.
Last night I dreamed I was, temporarily, back at Gethsemani. I was dressed in a Buddhist monk’s habit, but with more black and red and gold, a "Zen habit," in color more Tibetan than Zen . . . I met some women in the corridor, visitors and students of Asian religion, to whom I was explaining I was a kind of Zen monk and Gelugpa together, when I woke up. (Asian Journal, 107).
His friend Rice says:The Merton I knew never lost his sense of fun. Even as a monk he kept a sense of irreverence, especially where social behavior was concerned. He felt a little embarrassed, as an example, over the elaborate Merton Library set up for him in Kentucky. He visited the Merton Room, where he had helped put together the materials representing his life, on the day before he left on what was to be his fatal trip to Asia. "A good place to cut a fart," he said to a friend.
I last saw Merton in the late summer of 1968, a few months before his death. I had been travelling around America working on a photographic book, and on my way home I stopped at Gethsemani and spent several days with him. He told me he finally was going to Asia, that he had been dreaming about it for a long time. He was not in good health, but he was still enthusiastic about the trip, looking forward to meeting holy people like the Dalai Lama. He had a long list of holy people to see in India, Japan, Vietnam and Indonesia. I believe he managed to see most of them.
Henry Miller also really admired him:
Merton loved to laugh more than anybody I've known. There was always a hint of mischief in his expression. In one of many letters to Henry Miller, he sent along a picture of himself; Miller responded: "What's amazing to me is that it seems to combine my mug and (Jean) Genet's (the French writer who had been a convicted thief and lowlife). You, too, have the look of an ex-convict, of one who had been through the fires.
Merton's death at the age of fifty-three was recorded on the front page of "The New York Times" alongside that of the Protestant theologian, Karl Barth, who had died in his sleep at the age of 82 at his home in Switzerland. Coincidentally, Merton had written about Karl Barth in his book, "Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander." "Karl Barth had a dream about Mozart," Merton said. In the dream, Barth had been appointed to examine Mozart on his theology, and he was trying to make things easy for him. But Mozart did not answer. Merton felt that Barth's dream was about Barth's salvation, and that Barth felt he would be saved more by the Mozart in himself than by theology. "Each day, for years," Merton wrote, "Barth played Mozart every morning before going to work on his dogma, unconsciously seeking to awaken, perhaps, the hidden sophianic Mozart in himself, the central wisdom that comes with the divine and cosmic music and is saved by love.
A rather interesting man. But did he really change to Buddhism and would that prove to be the cause of his unexpected death?
The fact that his early death was attributed to being electrocuted in his hotel in Bangkok? I wonder…
February 4, 2019
A quiet, mundane, reflective, thought-provoking journey that came to me at exactly the right time in my life.
August 9, 2015
As a huge fan of Thomas Merton I really enjoyed and highly recommend this audio book, especially if—like me—you’re not at a place where you can read all seven volumes of his journals.
Overall, Intimate Merton gave me a greater appreciation for Thomas Merton as a man, monk, writer and Christian. His books on contemplative prayer sometimes bewildered, or left me with the impression he had all the answers, even if I didn't. His journals, however reveal his humanity through all the private struggles which (to me anyway) gave more credibility to what he wrote about the spiritual life, writing in general, peace/war, and relationships. I found many common themes I could relate to and a person I very much liked.
These journals bring him down off the pedestal I had put him on ... which I believe he would have liked. One delightful story highlights his lovely humility. The incident concerned one of his novices. Thomas discovering he had completely misunderstood the young monk was so quick to accept full responsibility and make amends. He not only does not try to equivocate, cover up or brush off the error; he makes sure the novice understands what he did that was wrong. I love that about him! So child-like and beautiful!
Listening to this book as quickly as I did, I noticed the restless spirit in Merton which was always seeking a new place/lifestyle/form of solitude where he could be happy. As this theme kept returning over and over, I wanted to say, “Thomas, don’t you know that which you really seek is a WHO and not a where or what or a how?” Ah well I'm sure he knew ...
You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.
Overall, Intimate Merton gave me a greater appreciation for Thomas Merton as a man, monk, writer and Christian. His books on contemplative prayer sometimes bewildered, or left me with the impression he had all the answers, even if I didn't. His journals, however reveal his humanity through all the private struggles which (to me anyway) gave more credibility to what he wrote about the spiritual life, writing in general, peace/war, and relationships. I found many common themes I could relate to and a person I very much liked.
These journals bring him down off the pedestal I had put him on ... which I believe he would have liked. One delightful story highlights his lovely humility. The incident concerned one of his novices. Thomas discovering he had completely misunderstood the young monk was so quick to accept full responsibility and make amends. He not only does not try to equivocate, cover up or brush off the error; he makes sure the novice understands what he did that was wrong. I love that about him! So child-like and beautiful!
Listening to this book as quickly as I did, I noticed the restless spirit in Merton which was always seeking a new place/lifestyle/form of solitude where he could be happy. As this theme kept returning over and over, I wanted to say, “Thomas, don’t you know that which you really seek is a WHO and not a where or what or a how?” Ah well I'm sure he knew ...
You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.
January 19, 2009
Hey, whaddya know. Merton isn't a robot. Since the journal entries are a heavily trimmed down set, this reads like a series of epiphanies on the same topic over and over, which sort of makes me want to set it on fire. Still, I am very much enjoying it the rest of the time.
I'm glad he flipped out and started sneaking around and being sexy with his hospital ladyfriend.
He legitimizes any and all mental insanity I find myself going through here at the monastery, and for that I'm grateful. Also, I can't help but be totally enraptured by the photo of him in the black sweater at his desk in front of an enormous bookshelf, looking either slightly pissed off or concentrating. I keep feeling like there's going to be an identical photo taken of me in about 25 years. Looking forward to it.
I'm glad he flipped out and started sneaking around and being sexy with his hospital ladyfriend.
He legitimizes any and all mental insanity I find myself going through here at the monastery, and for that I'm grateful. Also, I can't help but be totally enraptured by the photo of him in the black sweater at his desk in front of an enormous bookshelf, looking either slightly pissed off or concentrating. I keep feeling like there's going to be an identical photo taken of me in about 25 years. Looking forward to it.
January 24, 2021
I enjoyed reading my way slowly through this most honest and intimate journal. I feel like I know Thomas Merton, not just know about him. There were several times, especially in the later years, where I had to stop, put the book down for a few days, and just absorb what he had written. Beautiful book!
April 30, 2016
A review by Anthony T. Riggio of the book The Intimate Merton ( His Life from His Journals) compiled by Patrick Hart and Jonathon Montaldo.
Thomas Merton was a prodigious writer and he reflected his spiritual life in every work he accomplished. He was a journal writer and left behind after his untimely death in his early fifties, volumes documenting his experiences in great details. He produced volumes of his journals from the time he entered into Gethsemane Monastery in Kentucky, just outside of Lexington. The compilers, Patrick Hart and Jonathan Montaldo, previously edited several of his book publications.
Hart and Montaldo selected several of his journal entries from these volumes and compiled the structure for this book “The Intimate Merton”. I am sure the other entries were as capturing as those selected by them.
I read this work as a follow-up to Merton’s “Seven Story Mountain” which gave me incredible insight into his life leading up to his becoming a Cistercian Monk and ultimately a Priest in the Order. His life in the Seven Story Mountain was a great expression of his thoughts and feelings as he matured and was guided by the Holy Spirit to his ultimate vocation.
Reading the current work, “The Intimate Merton” was like peeking into Merton’s most intimate and guarded moments in his life as a Cistercian Monk/Priest. While the reader is, in effect, a voyeur reading and concluding things Merton enjoyed and detested, the reader is drawn inextricably into Merton’s thinking and psyche.
Merton was graced by God to search Him out through the use of both his great intellect but also his unyielding love for God. He has his moments of reaching very high plateaus and as a consequence great nadirs. The Intimate Merton is both an unvarnished look at his life but also a great love story with his God.
There are issues with both his vow of obedience and his celibacy as a priest and the reader can almost suffer his anxieties through this ordeal.
As a Cistercian Monk, his life is surrounded by an adherence to silence but Merton seeks even more solitude in an effort to realize God and communicate with him on a very deep level. He lives the live of a religious hermit in a authorized hermitage on the grounds of the Gethsemane Monastery. While in solitude, he encounters many followers as well as admirers’ of his works.
Some are critical of his deviations into Eastern thinking and prayer life but by the time the reader reaches this point in his compilation of journal entries, it is clear that all of his searching is for God.
I purchased this book in the Kindle format through Amazon and rated it five stars out of five and strongly recommended it for the searching
Thomas Merton was a prodigious writer and he reflected his spiritual life in every work he accomplished. He was a journal writer and left behind after his untimely death in his early fifties, volumes documenting his experiences in great details. He produced volumes of his journals from the time he entered into Gethsemane Monastery in Kentucky, just outside of Lexington. The compilers, Patrick Hart and Jonathan Montaldo, previously edited several of his book publications.
Hart and Montaldo selected several of his journal entries from these volumes and compiled the structure for this book “The Intimate Merton”. I am sure the other entries were as capturing as those selected by them.
I read this work as a follow-up to Merton’s “Seven Story Mountain” which gave me incredible insight into his life leading up to his becoming a Cistercian Monk and ultimately a Priest in the Order. His life in the Seven Story Mountain was a great expression of his thoughts and feelings as he matured and was guided by the Holy Spirit to his ultimate vocation.
Reading the current work, “The Intimate Merton” was like peeking into Merton’s most intimate and guarded moments in his life as a Cistercian Monk/Priest. While the reader is, in effect, a voyeur reading and concluding things Merton enjoyed and detested, the reader is drawn inextricably into Merton’s thinking and psyche.
Merton was graced by God to search Him out through the use of both his great intellect but also his unyielding love for God. He has his moments of reaching very high plateaus and as a consequence great nadirs. The Intimate Merton is both an unvarnished look at his life but also a great love story with his God.
There are issues with both his vow of obedience and his celibacy as a priest and the reader can almost suffer his anxieties through this ordeal.
As a Cistercian Monk, his life is surrounded by an adherence to silence but Merton seeks even more solitude in an effort to realize God and communicate with him on a very deep level. He lives the live of a religious hermit in a authorized hermitage on the grounds of the Gethsemane Monastery. While in solitude, he encounters many followers as well as admirers’ of his works.
Some are critical of his deviations into Eastern thinking and prayer life but by the time the reader reaches this point in his compilation of journal entries, it is clear that all of his searching is for God.
I purchased this book in the Kindle format through Amazon and rated it five stars out of five and strongly recommended it for the searching
June 2, 2012
I love Merton's journals. Although Seven Storey Mountain is a desert Island book for me, I couldn't leave his journals behind. To label them "journals" almost does these work a disservice. These are meditations, stories, minutia, observations, profound revelations from a man on his journey to God. As with Seven Storey Mountain, we see Merton the human being with all his flaws, however we also see Merton the contemplative mystic vying for a place in the pantheon of John of the Cross or Teresa of Avila. I also found the inner workings and day to day life in a Trappist monastery fascinating.
Merton wrote constantly. In addition to his other works, he wrote multiple volumes of journals. This book is nice distillation of all of them spanning most the adult years of his life. If you've never read Merton or his journals this is wonderful book to start with. Even though I own all of the volumes of his journals, this is the book I keep at my bedside.
An amazing account of the evolution of the man and the contemplative. 5 Stars.
Merton wrote constantly. In addition to his other works, he wrote multiple volumes of journals. This book is nice distillation of all of them spanning most the adult years of his life. If you've never read Merton or his journals this is wonderful book to start with. Even though I own all of the volumes of his journals, this is the book I keep at my bedside.
An amazing account of the evolution of the man and the contemplative. 5 Stars.
November 21, 2022
A few favorite random quotes/thoughts from the journal:
“The most powerful communication of scripture is the ‘implanted word,’ the secret and inexpressible seed of contemplation planted in the depths of our soul.”
“To know when, how and to whom to say ‘No!’ …Not to want to hurt people, certainly, but not being too anxious to placate them. People are always trying to use you to help create an illusion by which they live.”
“[The routine of a particular beggar] sure, is a well-practiced routine, an art, a theater, but a starkly necessary art of dramatizing one’s despair and awful emptiness.”
“The most powerful communication of scripture is the ‘implanted word,’ the secret and inexpressible seed of contemplation planted in the depths of our soul.”
“To know when, how and to whom to say ‘No!’ …Not to want to hurt people, certainly, but not being too anxious to placate them. People are always trying to use you to help create an illusion by which they live.”
“[The routine of a particular beggar] sure, is a well-practiced routine, an art, a theater, but a starkly necessary art of dramatizing one’s despair and awful emptiness.”
October 2, 2013
One's most deeply held convictions, most ardently pursued dreams, firmly protected ideologies, open-book spirits are best known through one's journals, not diatribes. Here, we must live with our pants down and with the ever present risk that our finely constructed personal castles can be easily dismantled in light of our own self-disclosure. If this is good enough for monastic-mystic-philosopher-poet-artist-lover, Thomas Merton, it must be good enough for me!
"The point is that it does not much matter where you are as long as you can be at peace about it and live your life."
Amen, brother Merton - a sinner/saint just like us.
"The point is that it does not much matter where you are as long as you can be at peace about it and live your life."
Amen, brother Merton - a sinner/saint just like us.
April 2, 2020
I don’t know if disciples choose their teachers or if it’s more the other way around.
For better or for worse, Merton feels in many ways to me like my guide to finding God in twenty-first century America. He is a somewhat shaky guide, as this distillation of his journals attests. Sometimes his lack of self-awareness is just endearing and humanizing and sometimes it’s wildly damaging and just appalling. His inner thoughts—like anyone’s!—are gorgeous and rich and sometimes annoying (See entire section on his affair with the nurse).
But, (and this is why I always keep coming back to him) Merton always has something to teach. Throughout reading, it struck me how impossible it is for him, me, us—any of us—to live our vocations if we are not rooted in the unshakable assurance that we are loved. Loved with the sort of radical acceptance and intimacy Merton clearly hungered for. And this love is ultimately the love of God. But we cannot experience the love of the God we cannot see if we have not experienced it in the brother we *can* see. This love takes many forms blah blah blah this is not a case against celibacy or monastic life. The post is there’s a mysterious moment in which we encounter the love of God through and behind and underneath the love that surrounds us. This “moment” is not a single moment but an entire lifetime of discovering and returning to that source. That source of love and life that reveals us as creatures made by love for love to love.
And I supposed Merton’s intimate life simply demonstrates the real possibility of anyone—no matter how holy, integrated, theologically-trained, etc—being capable of wandering from that source. And the real harm you can commit when you do. That is a lesson certainly worth all the troubling dream passages the editors intentionally included. So, despite my annoyance with the sad boi tendencies of the teacher, I remain a grateful pupil of Merton.
For better or for worse, Merton feels in many ways to me like my guide to finding God in twenty-first century America. He is a somewhat shaky guide, as this distillation of his journals attests. Sometimes his lack of self-awareness is just endearing and humanizing and sometimes it’s wildly damaging and just appalling. His inner thoughts—like anyone’s!—are gorgeous and rich and sometimes annoying (See entire section on his affair with the nurse).
But, (and this is why I always keep coming back to him) Merton always has something to teach. Throughout reading, it struck me how impossible it is for him, me, us—any of us—to live our vocations if we are not rooted in the unshakable assurance that we are loved. Loved with the sort of radical acceptance and intimacy Merton clearly hungered for. And this love is ultimately the love of God. But we cannot experience the love of the God we cannot see if we have not experienced it in the brother we *can* see. This love takes many forms blah blah blah this is not a case against celibacy or monastic life. The post is there’s a mysterious moment in which we encounter the love of God through and behind and underneath the love that surrounds us. This “moment” is not a single moment but an entire lifetime of discovering and returning to that source. That source of love and life that reveals us as creatures made by love for love to love.
And I supposed Merton’s intimate life simply demonstrates the real possibility of anyone—no matter how holy, integrated, theologically-trained, etc—being capable of wandering from that source. And the real harm you can commit when you do. That is a lesson certainly worth all the troubling dream passages the editors intentionally included. So, despite my annoyance with the sad boi tendencies of the teacher, I remain a grateful pupil of Merton.
July 18, 2020
The Intimate Merton is an edited collection of Merton’s private journals, dating from 1939 (just before he entered the Abbey of Gethsemani) to his death in 1968.
Here are some of my observations:
- Merton was restless, and often considered the possibility of leaving Gethsemani for another location, and even put in formal requests to relocate. (He was denied, having taken a vow to remain there.)
- I found his later years the most interesting, especially once he moves into the hermitage in the 1960s.
- He was an avid bird watcher. This may seem like a hobby at first, but listen to those passages. They have something to teach us about the contemplative life.
- Joan Baez came to visit Merton in his hermitage, and he liked to listen to Bob Dylan records.
I recommend this book to anyone who wants a peek at Merton’s daily life, what life was like outside of his published books.
Here are some of my observations:
- Merton was restless, and often considered the possibility of leaving Gethsemani for another location, and even put in formal requests to relocate. (He was denied, having taken a vow to remain there.)
- I found his later years the most interesting, especially once he moves into the hermitage in the 1960s.
- He was an avid bird watcher. This may seem like a hobby at first, but listen to those passages. They have something to teach us about the contemplative life.
- Joan Baez came to visit Merton in his hermitage, and he liked to listen to Bob Dylan records.
I recommend this book to anyone who wants a peek at Merton’s daily life, what life was like outside of his published books.
December 26, 2022
This book contains a selection from the entries in Thomas Merton's journals dating from before his entry at Gethsemani till minutes or hours prior to his death. It is not all easy reading. Thomas Merton reveals his ugly side along side his inner saint. The "ugly side" compels me to also recognize my ugly side.
I was sufficiently moved to purchase the first two of seven volumes of his complete journals.
I was sufficiently moved to purchase the first two of seven volumes of his complete journals.
Read
April 7, 2021Also for class. It is selected passages from his much larger collected journals. I gathered from this and also from his Life In Letters many, many more authors to read, which I appreciate. He doesn't speak to the interior of prayer nearly as much as about writing and his battles with the Church over it.
January 2, 2018
At first I was disappointed in the book. Then it was beautiful to see how Merton grew in thought and practice through his journals. This took me a while to read because I wanted to take my time with it and not rush through. Makes a great bedtime read because it's powerful, thoughtful, and peaceful.
June 6, 2018
"Therefore, if I don't pretend, like other people, to understand the war, I do know this much: that the knowledge of what is going on only makes it seem desperately important to be voluntarily poor, to get rid of all possessions this instant. I am scared, sometimes, to own anything, even a name, let alone a coin or shares in oil, the munitions, the aeroplane factories. I am scared to take a proprietary interest in anything for fear that my love of what I own may be killing somebody somewhere." p 38
"My interior activity must begin to gradually to die down (but it tends to increase!). All the useless twisting and turning of my nature, analysing the faults of the community and the choir, figuring out what is wrong with everything and what could be right... With all these things I have lost time and made myself suffer, and ruined the work of God in my soul." - 79
" In an age where there is much talk about 'being yourself' I reserve to myself the right to forget about being myself, since in any case there is very little chance of my being anybody else. Rather it seems to me that, when one is too intent on 'being himself', he runs the risk of impersonating a shadow." - 297
"My interior activity must begin to gradually to die down (but it tends to increase!). All the useless twisting and turning of my nature, analysing the faults of the community and the choir, figuring out what is wrong with everything and what could be right... With all these things I have lost time and made myself suffer, and ruined the work of God in my soul." - 79
" In an age where there is much talk about 'being yourself' I reserve to myself the right to forget about being myself, since in any case there is very little chance of my being anybody else. Rather it seems to me that, when one is too intent on 'being himself', he runs the risk of impersonating a shadow." - 297
July 26, 2018
A simply outstanding sampling of Merton's journals, a great place to start studying them or as a refresher for those who already have!
January 18, 2019
A fascinating insight into Merton's life, and turned me onto a number of his writings I hadn't explored before.
August 8, 2022
The man was a saint, and all saints are humans; they sin, they doubt, they think, and they share their discovery of meeting the living God in their life. This was Thomas Merton
March 7, 2025
Bit of a slog this one. It was certainly intimate. Merton, a Trappist monk, shares his innermost thoughts and struggles as he grapples with monastic life and seeks the solitude he yearns for.
February 10, 2013
WOW this book took me a long time to read. I guess it's not easy to just breeze through someone's entire life. When I read the introduction to the book and learned that, although the book consisted of excerpts from all of Thomas Merton's journals, they were just that -- excerpts. In other words, the book was abridged, and I usually avoid abridged books. But then I decided I'd go ahead with it, to get a "taste" of Thomas Merton and decide if I wanted to read more. And I have to say, if I had a book of his *complete* collected journals, I probably would have been too intimidated by it to ever crack it open, anyway.
I waffled a little over whether to give this book three or four stars. On the one hand, one of the reasons that it took me so long to read is that it was a little slow-moving. As a real journal, it's unfair to expect it to have the kind of narrative arc that a memoir or novel would have. So instead one must read it for one man's insight into spirituality and for a peek into how someone else interprets the world. I went through a phase around 2005 when I was really into reading published journals, and which really inspired me to write in my own journal more. I didn't find that same compulsion when reading Thomas Merton's journal. I think part of the reason is that part of it felt a little bit "put on" to me, not quite authentic, as though he were observing his own thoughts a bit *too* much and not fully sinking into his experiences, sometimes saying what he felt he ought to say in reaction to certain experiences. Still, I so admire his dedication to non-violence, and to inter-religious dialog and understanding. And his preoccupations with religion, solitude, and writing are all topics that resonate with me, too, so I found myself filling the book with sticky notes so that I wouldn't forget to copy certain quotes out to reference after the book has moved on.
But despite my introversion, what interests me most in a book is the relationship between the characters. I think that was another reason I found the book slow -- Thomas Merton spent a lot of time reflecting, a lot of time in solitude, a lot of time describing the weather and nature. The book picked up for me near the end when he had an illicit love affair, and it made me feel shallow and voyeuristic to have that be the element that kept me turning pages, rather than all the spiritual affairs that caused me to pick up the book in the first place.
As his spirituality veered more toward Buddhism and Eastern philosophy than Catholicism, I found less that resonated with me, although I appreciate that he was growing toward a deeper spirituality throughout his entire life, and I can accept that such a quest can legitimately lead you into new territory from where you started.
The end of the book is very unsettling; the last entry is written two days before his sudden death, and there is no afterward to give context to how he died or other elements that weren't fully explained in his journals. I had to look it up online.
I feel that the book is mostly intended to give people already familiar with Thomas Merton an "inside look" at the man behind his more famous writings. But as an introduction to Merton, it leaves the reader with a lot of questions. Still, it makes me want to read more by and about him, which is ultimately what settled this book into four-star territory.
I waffled a little over whether to give this book three or four stars. On the one hand, one of the reasons that it took me so long to read is that it was a little slow-moving. As a real journal, it's unfair to expect it to have the kind of narrative arc that a memoir or novel would have. So instead one must read it for one man's insight into spirituality and for a peek into how someone else interprets the world. I went through a phase around 2005 when I was really into reading published journals, and which really inspired me to write in my own journal more. I didn't find that same compulsion when reading Thomas Merton's journal. I think part of the reason is that part of it felt a little bit "put on" to me, not quite authentic, as though he were observing his own thoughts a bit *too* much and not fully sinking into his experiences, sometimes saying what he felt he ought to say in reaction to certain experiences. Still, I so admire his dedication to non-violence, and to inter-religious dialog and understanding. And his preoccupations with religion, solitude, and writing are all topics that resonate with me, too, so I found myself filling the book with sticky notes so that I wouldn't forget to copy certain quotes out to reference after the book has moved on.
But despite my introversion, what interests me most in a book is the relationship between the characters. I think that was another reason I found the book slow -- Thomas Merton spent a lot of time reflecting, a lot of time in solitude, a lot of time describing the weather and nature. The book picked up for me near the end when he had an illicit love affair, and it made me feel shallow and voyeuristic to have that be the element that kept me turning pages, rather than all the spiritual affairs that caused me to pick up the book in the first place.
As his spirituality veered more toward Buddhism and Eastern philosophy than Catholicism, I found less that resonated with me, although I appreciate that he was growing toward a deeper spirituality throughout his entire life, and I can accept that such a quest can legitimately lead you into new territory from where you started.
The end of the book is very unsettling; the last entry is written two days before his sudden death, and there is no afterward to give context to how he died or other elements that weren't fully explained in his journals. I had to look it up online.
I feel that the book is mostly intended to give people already familiar with Thomas Merton an "inside look" at the man behind his more famous writings. But as an introduction to Merton, it leaves the reader with a lot of questions. Still, it makes me want to read more by and about him, which is ultimately what settled this book into four-star territory.
June 15, 2013
Initial Question:
How does Merton volley and shift in his life, "spiritual" or not?
Merton does volley, just like a "normal person" - and i think that's what he was after all along.
I resonated most with Merton's desire to reduce life to its most simple state - pursuing contentment rather than duplicity. This would happen when Merton would write bout disappearing into the countryside in solitude, describing the landscape in his journal, describing the peace he felt being alone. Yet: he was also drawn toward the rhythms and necessities of community. Though: it felt like this faded as the journal went on, like he was seeing the necessity (perhaps radical-ness) of monastic life as something much less than he'd first imagined, something no longer as necessary as he once imagined.
What then would be necessary?
What would Merton's "point" be, the deeper pursuit that shows up in his journal? -- the capacity to will one thing, a life with The Lord and that alone. Vanity faded. Duplicity faded. Mercy and Justice focused. The willing of one thing.
How does Merton volley and shift in his life, "spiritual" or not?
Merton does volley, just like a "normal person" - and i think that's what he was after all along.
I resonated most with Merton's desire to reduce life to its most simple state - pursuing contentment rather than duplicity. This would happen when Merton would write bout disappearing into the countryside in solitude, describing the landscape in his journal, describing the peace he felt being alone. Yet: he was also drawn toward the rhythms and necessities of community. Though: it felt like this faded as the journal went on, like he was seeing the necessity (perhaps radical-ness) of monastic life as something much less than he'd first imagined, something no longer as necessary as he once imagined.
What then would be necessary?
What would Merton's "point" be, the deeper pursuit that shows up in his journal? -- the capacity to will one thing, a life with The Lord and that alone. Vanity faded. Duplicity faded. Mercy and Justice focused. The willing of one thing.
October 16, 2012
I have been reading this book since August, and just finished a couple of days ago. I loved savoring it--so much to think about and to let sink into me--I didn't want to fly through it. It's made me want to read more of Merton's journals, though I so much appreciated this edited version, which--even though it's a tiny fraction of the total journals--manages to create such a rich and moving and complicated picture of Merton. Sometimes I wished for more in the way of notes: I didn't always understand the references to people, books he was reading, some historical events--and though the introduction is beautiful and heartful, it doesn't do a whole lot to explain the above. For someone who doesn't know anything about TM's life, this might be a challenge. The writing itself is luminous and presents Merton as fully, contradictorily, wonderfully human; I love what a real person he is in these pages.
April 2, 2016
Lately, I've been talking about Buddhism with my Catholic friends. And they keep bringing up Merton. So here I am.
This is an account of the kinds of things you think about, the kind of wisdom you acquire, if you devote your life to solitude. While it's unclear how the editor selected these particular journal entries, I found the "Reader's Digest" winnowing starkly revealed Merton's transformation over time. As he aged, his belief system got more spare, more (I hesitate to say it) "Zen". Always pushing/questioning the boundaries of the Catholic monastic system, he nevertheless found a path through it and accepted its restrictions. His descriptions of nature are wonderful. His guilt is curious and obsessive. It's a shame he died young as he still clearly had much wisdom to offer.
This is an account of the kinds of things you think about, the kind of wisdom you acquire, if you devote your life to solitude. While it's unclear how the editor selected these particular journal entries, I found the "Reader's Digest" winnowing starkly revealed Merton's transformation over time. As he aged, his belief system got more spare, more (I hesitate to say it) "Zen". Always pushing/questioning the boundaries of the Catholic monastic system, he nevertheless found a path through it and accepted its restrictions. His descriptions of nature are wonderful. His guilt is curious and obsessive. It's a shame he died young as he still clearly had much wisdom to offer.
September 10, 2008
I came to know Merton's writing through photography. I was a night course at PNCA. Smith, my teacher showed us the work of Eugen Meatyard. Meatyard spent sometime with Merton in his monastery in Kentucky photographing him.
It was years ago when I bought this book. Recently, I read 'Miracle of Mindfullness'. The author, I later learn had a great influence on Merton.
It was years ago when I bought this book. Recently, I read 'Miracle of Mindfullness'. The author, I later learn had a great influence on Merton.
Currently reading
July 20, 2009The more he seems to be descending (or ascending) into the contemplative life of the monk, the more he seems to be present, reminding me of the requirement of Strasberg's method acting to constantly "be in the moment", the more he seems to be less opinionated, less concerned about opinions of his personal past or future, the less judgemental - and the more interesting to me.
December 8, 2015
An excellent overview of the life of this great 20th century religious figure, illustrating the changes in his spiritual life, from his early Catholicism to his "maturity"as a Catholic writer, his "affair" with a nurse when he was ill, and his pilgrimage to Asia where he met his death. Truly, a worthwhile book to go through during the year.
March 25, 2015
What a difficult and unique thing to "meet" someone, get to know them over 29 years of their life, and then realize that the entire experience was just you spying on the house of his love, a glimpse through a one-way mirror.
September 8, 2016
"What was fragile has become powerful. I loved what was most frail. I looked upon what was nothing. I touched what was without substance, and within what was not, I am." (from 'The Voice of God is heard in Paradise', July 4, 1952, The Fire Watch, 'The Intimate Merton' p102)
April 6, 2007
I can relate with the worry in his writing... a bad quality.
August 5, 2008
Occasionally meandering and a little hard to follow-- they are journals after all-- but with beautiful little gems of insight that inspire my own reflection on what it means to love God.
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