Q&A with Ian Morgan Cron discussion

John Irving, Oscar Hijuelos, Flannery O'Connor, Dostoevsky, Albert Camus, Wendell Berry, Frederick Buechner, Thomas Merton, Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, Shusaku Endo, Wallace Stegner, Evelyn Underhill, St. John of the Cross, Annie Dillard, Somerset Maugham, Richard Rohr, Jean Vanier, Archbishop Rowan Williams, Gerald May.

I've only read your book on Francis (and I loved it!) but I can see some of these influences in that book. Especially Thomas Merton, Wendell Berry, and Frederick Buechner.

Hi Darrell,

I reread all three of Buechner's memoirs before I started my own. Wendell Berry's voice is like shaker furniture--so simple and elegant. As for Merton--what can I say--arguably the greatest religious genius of the 20th century. Do you enjoy him as well?

I do enjoy Merton, his poetry as well as his prose.

My fave Merton is Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander and New Seeds of Contemplation, but I love others as well.

Hi Ian, I'm a Merton newbie. Any first book recommendations?

Hi Luke, I would definitely start with Merton's spiritual memoir Seven Storey Mountain. Its hard to believe he was only 33 when he wrote this bestselling classic. Slow in one or two places but brilliant. His other works make more sense after you read Seven Storey.

Brilliant thanks Ian. You had to choose the only one my parents don't own! Typical :-)

Its worth buying for your personal library!

Hi Ian,

I'm not sure if this is the forum for this question or not, but here goes...

I have watched your video on "Becoming The Liturgy" several times now. It has REALLY connected with me. I was wondering if you have any recommended reading on the slow work of God in our lives and in our churches?

Hi Phil,

The contemplatives and mystics tend to write best on this subject. My favorite would be Thomas Merton. He's my hero.

The prayer of the Jesuit priest Teillard de Chardin moves me deeply.

"Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way
to something unknown,
something new.
Yet it is the law of all progress that is made
by passing through some stages of instability
and that may take a very long time.
And so I think it is with you.
Your ideas mature gradually. Let them grow.
Let them shape themselves without undue haste.
Do not try to force them on
as though you could be today what time
-- that is to say, grace --
and circumstances
acting on your own good will
will make you tomorrow.
Only God could say what this new Spirit
gradually forming in you will be.
Give our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.
Above all, trust in the slow work of God,
our loving vine-dresser.
Amen."

"Our loving vine-dresser". Hallelujah.

Thank you.

Wow, what an incredible poem. Thanks for sharing this. It will be helpful for the people in our Recovery ministry.

So glad!!!

I've never read your books