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Silence, Joy
An inspiring gift-edition of poetry and prose from the world's favorite monk-poet In this day of mindless distraction, we’re desperate for reasons to put down our phones and reconnect with our spiritual selves. In time for the 50th anniversary of Thomas Merton's death in 1968, Silence, Joy is an invitation to slow down, take a breath, make a space for silence, and open up to joy.
Poet, monk, spiritual advisor, and social critic, Thomas Merton is a unique―and uniquely beloved―figure of the twentieth century, and this little rosary brings together his best-loved poems and prose. Drawn from classics like New Seeds Of Contemplation and The Way Of Chuang Tzu as well as less famous books, the writings in Silence, Joy offer the reader deep, calming stillness, flights of ecstatic praise, steadying words of wisdom, and openhearted laughter. Manna for Merton lovers and a warm embrace for novices, this slim collection is a delightful gift.
Poet, monk, spiritual advisor, and social critic, Thomas Merton is a unique―and uniquely beloved―figure of the twentieth century, and this little rosary brings together his best-loved poems and prose. Drawn from classics like New Seeds Of Contemplation and The Way Of Chuang Tzu as well as less famous books, the writings in Silence, Joy offer the reader deep, calming stillness, flights of ecstatic praise, steadying words of wisdom, and openhearted laughter. Manna for Merton lovers and a warm embrace for novices, this slim collection is a delightful gift.
96 pages, Paperback
Published November 27, 2018
23 people are currently reading
120 people want to read
About the author
Thomas Merton
559 books1,905 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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December 27, 2023Silence, Joy
“Everything that is, is holy”
“For the world and time are the dance of the Lord in emptiness. The silence of the spheres is the music of a wedding feast. The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life, the more we analyze them out into strange finalities and complex purposes of our own, the more we involve ourselves in sadness, absurdity and despair. But it does not matter much, because no despair of ours can alter the reality of things, or stain the joy of the cosmic dance which is always there. Indeed, we are in the midst of it, and it is in the midst of us, for it beats in our very blood, whether we want it to or not”
“At any rate the Lord plays and diverts Himself in the garden of His creation, and if we could let go of our own obsession with what we think is the meaning of it all, we might be able to hear His call and follow Him in His mysterious, cosmic dance. We do not have to go very far to catch echoes of that game, and of that dancing. When we are alone on a starlit night; when by chance we see the migrating birds in autumn descending on a grove of junipers to rest and eat; when we see children in a moment when they are really children; when we know love in our own hearts; or when, like the Japanese poet Bashˉo we hear an old frog land in a quiet pond with a solitary splash—at such times the awakening, the turning inside out of all values, the ‘newness,’ the emptiness and the purity of vision that make themselves evident, provide a glimpse of the cosmic dance”
“Everything that is, is holy”
“For the world and time are the dance of the Lord in emptiness. The silence of the spheres is the music of a wedding feast. The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life, the more we analyze them out into strange finalities and complex purposes of our own, the more we involve ourselves in sadness, absurdity and despair. But it does not matter much, because no despair of ours can alter the reality of things, or stain the joy of the cosmic dance which is always there. Indeed, we are in the midst of it, and it is in the midst of us, for it beats in our very blood, whether we want it to or not”
“At any rate the Lord plays and diverts Himself in the garden of His creation, and if we could let go of our own obsession with what we think is the meaning of it all, we might be able to hear His call and follow Him in His mysterious, cosmic dance. We do not have to go very far to catch echoes of that game, and of that dancing. When we are alone on a starlit night; when by chance we see the migrating birds in autumn descending on a grove of junipers to rest and eat; when we see children in a moment when they are really children; when we know love in our own hearts; or when, like the Japanese poet Bashˉo we hear an old frog land in a quiet pond with a solitary splash—at such times the awakening, the turning inside out of all values, the ‘newness,’ the emptiness and the purity of vision that make themselves evident, provide a glimpse of the cosmic dance”
December 28, 2018
This is a nice little compact book containing some of Merton's reflections and poetry. Not having read any of Merton's works before, it was deeper than I expected, and it would have been better read with a cup of hot chocolatier in front of a fire instead of a busy, noisy airport. But I still thought it was worthwhile.
September 18, 2019
I read this on a short flight. I teared up several times. A stewardess startled me when she nudged me on the shoulder to take the coffee I'd previously asked for.
It was a good read. I will be returning to it.
It was a good read. I will be returning to it.
April 10, 2020
Lovely little book of reflections, poems, and essays from Thomas Merton, one of my favorites.
July 10, 2022
U anxious and depressed bitches could learn a thing or 2 (I’m bitches)
November 12, 2024
Every moment and every event of every man's life on earth plants something in his soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of winged seeds, so every moment brings w it germs of spiritual vitality that come to test imperceptibly in the minds and wills of men.
No idea of HIM, however pure and perfect, is adequate to express Him as he really is. Our idea of God tells us more about ourselves than about him.
Poem "in silence" excerpt:
The whole world is secretly on fire. The stones burn, even the stones they burn them. How can a man be still or listen to all things burning. How can he dare to sit with them when all their silence is on fire?
The only true joy on Earth is to escape from the prison of our own false self, and enter by love into union with the life who dwells and sings within the essence of every creature and in the core of our own souls. In his love we possess all things and enjoy fruition of them, finding him in them all. And thus as we go about the world, everything we meet and everything we see and hear and touch, far from defiling, purifies us and plants in us something more of contemplation and of heaven.
In all creative things we, who do not yet perfectly love God, can find something that reflects the fulfillment in heaven and something that reflects the Anguish of hell.
The elder replied: if you want to have rest here in this life and also in the next, in every conflict with another say: who am I? And judge no one.
When all the men of war are shot and flags have fallen into dust, your cross and mind shall tell men still Christ died on each, for both of us.
I came into existence under a sign of contradiction, being someone that I was never intended to be and therefore a denial of what I am supposed to be.
For eschatology is not finis and punishment, the winding up of accounts and the closing of books: It is the final beginning, the definitive birth into a new creation. It is not the last gap of exhausted possibilities but the first taste of all that is beyond conceiving as actual.
No idea of HIM, however pure and perfect, is adequate to express Him as he really is. Our idea of God tells us more about ourselves than about him.
Poem "in silence" excerpt:
The whole world is secretly on fire. The stones burn, even the stones they burn them. How can a man be still or listen to all things burning. How can he dare to sit with them when all their silence is on fire?
The only true joy on Earth is to escape from the prison of our own false self, and enter by love into union with the life who dwells and sings within the essence of every creature and in the core of our own souls. In his love we possess all things and enjoy fruition of them, finding him in them all. And thus as we go about the world, everything we meet and everything we see and hear and touch, far from defiling, purifies us and plants in us something more of contemplation and of heaven.
In all creative things we, who do not yet perfectly love God, can find something that reflects the fulfillment in heaven and something that reflects the Anguish of hell.
The elder replied: if you want to have rest here in this life and also in the next, in every conflict with another say: who am I? And judge no one.
When all the men of war are shot and flags have fallen into dust, your cross and mind shall tell men still Christ died on each, for both of us.
I came into existence under a sign of contradiction, being someone that I was never intended to be and therefore a denial of what I am supposed to be.
For eschatology is not finis and punishment, the winding up of accounts and the closing of books: It is the final beginning, the definitive birth into a new creation. It is not the last gap of exhausted possibilities but the first taste of all that is beyond conceiving as actual.
July 12, 2023
“For how can I receive seeds of freedom if I am in love with slavery and how can I cherish the desire of God if I am filled with another and an opposite desire?…
For it is God's love that warms me in the sun and God's love that sends the cold rain. It is God's love that feeds me in the bread I eat and God that feeds me also by hunger and fasting. It is the love of God that sends the winter days when I am cold and sick, and the hot summer when I labor and my clothes are full of sweat: but it is God who breathes on me with light winds off the river and in the breezes out of the wood. His love spreads the shade of the sycamore over my head and sends the water-boy along the edge of the wheat field with a bucket from the spring, while the laborers are resting and the mules stand under the tree. It is God's love that speaks to me in the birds and streams; but also behind the clamor of the city God speaks to me in His judgments, and all these things are seeds sent to me from His will.
If these seeds would take root in my liberty, and if His will would grow from my freedom, I would become the love that He is, and my harvest would be His glory and my own joy.
And I would grow together with thousands and millions of other freedoms into the gold of one huge field praising God, loaded with increase, loaded with wheat. If in all things I consider only the heat and the cold, the food or the hunger, the sickness or labor, the beauty or pleasure, the success and failure or the material good or evil my works have won for my own will, I will find only emptiness and not happiness. I shall not be fed, I shall not be full. For my food is the will of Him Who made me and Who made all things in order to give Himself to me through them.”
- Thomas Merton, Silence, Joy
April 18, 2024
This book isn't about to make me a convert to the writings of Thomas Merton because these excerpts and poems infer the dubiously universal ability to distinguish good from bad, relate a prejudice that saints are superhumans inherently without flaws, and promote the belief that we all live in increasing fear of death. Probably the most famous 20th-century American monk, Merton imparts wisdom gleaned from his Trappist brothers too and it's rarely revelatory. (I did like "Get away from any man who always every time he talks.") Yet I'm also hesitant to dismiss this guy outright because of the lovely thoughts he shares about prayer, his admission of the inadequacy of words when describing spiritual matters, his passion for the Chinese philosopher Chaung Tzu, and his distinguishing between egoism and individuality. (I also learned the word "kerygma," a biblical term meaning "proclamation.") So take my opinion for what it's worth. Not much. On the inside flap, you'll find endorsements from the Dalai Lama, Pope Francis, and Thic Nhat Hanh. They carry more weight than I do.
June 12, 2019
Merton offers gifts of insight and confronts our superficial, false-self existence, in this collection of contemplative writings, poems and essays. "We must learn to realize that the love of God seeks us in every situation, and seeks our good." Merton is a guide to that abiding walk with God which receives all good things as from Him, which finds in all beauties the expressions of God's love and which challenges us "to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful solemnity to the winds and join in the general dance." Read and re-read, sensing a mysterious landscape of Truth beyond ourselves and where our truest selves are found.
September 12, 2025
I love Thomas Merton! Great little book.
"“The only true joy on earth is to escape from the prison of tour own false self, and enter by love into union with the Life Who dwells and sings within the essence of every creature and in the core of our own souls. In His love we possess all things and enjoy fruition of them, finding Him in them all. And thus as we go about the world, everything we meet and everything we see and hear and touch, far from defiling, purifies us and plants in us something more of contemplation and of heaven."
"“The only true joy on earth is to escape from the prison of tour own false self, and enter by love into union with the Life Who dwells and sings within the essence of every creature and in the core of our own souls. In His love we possess all things and enjoy fruition of them, finding Him in them all. And thus as we go about the world, everything we meet and everything we see and hear and touch, far from defiling, purifies us and plants in us something more of contemplation and of heaven."
May 27, 2023
Really not worth buying. Seemed like random excerpts that the editor found across all of Merton's writing just to put in a "little book." Only one reading merits this book staying on my shelf. Page 64-74 is a sweet reading of Merton's advent thoughts on there being "no room in the inn." Merton tells the reader that we must be like the stable, having room and silence for the baby to arrive. There figuratively and spiritually wasn't room in the inn.
March 13, 2020
A mighty read in such a mini volume. I dogeared almost every other page. A gem of a spiritual read for those looking for distilled knowledge and wisdom from living a meditative life. Highly recommend it.
June 1, 2020
A collection of poems and essays on silence, peace and joy by Thomas Merton, Trappist monk, poet, mystic and activist. Some spoke to me, and I'll certainly return to them; others felt quite abstract, perhaps because of the times in which I am living and the space I occupy there.
March 31, 2022
some beautifully worded wisdom contained in this lil guy. especially was stirred by his comments in “things in their identity” — “a tree gives glory to God by being a tree. For in being what God means it to be it is obeying Him.”
November 20, 2020
One of the best reads I’ve ever experienced. Absolutely phenomenal
August 12, 2021
A welcome anthology of Thomas Merton’s reflections on solitude and prayer. A great intro to his work.
September 3, 2021
Unsurprisingly, Merton (as a Trappist) knows a lot about silence.
January 28, 2022
Merton’s meditations on silence and how it can help us see past our false selves in order to truly find joy. A lovely book with essays and poetry. Gift from Mom.
February 2, 2023
Some of the best reflections on God and faith that I've read in a long time. Possibly ever.
June 21, 2022
Home to what is currently my favorite poem of all time, “In Silence.”
“…the stones burn, even the stones they burn me”
“…the stones burn, even the stones they burn me”
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews