Kathleen’s Reviews > Living With Wisdom - A Life of Thomas Merton > Status Update
Kathleen
is on page 175 of 288
Wow. In a second age of protest, this chapter is so important: “It is an enormously subtle question, but we have to consider the fact that nonviolence may tend to harden opposition and confirm people in their righteous blindness... we have got to be aware of the awful sharpness of truth when it is used as a weapon... Ideally we are the instrument of truth and not the other way round.”
— Dec 20, 2018 09:13AM
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Kathleen’s Previous Updates
Kathleen
is on page 203 of 288
Wow, I wonder what happened to Margie... sad (pathetic?) that he loved her so fiercely, so quickly, and then had to break it off equally as abruptly and melodramatically.
— Dec 31, 2018 02:53PM
Kathleen
is on page 187 of 288
History only repeats itself. Merton in 1965: “The spirit of this county at the present moment is to me terribly disturbing... the whole atmosphere is crazy, not just the peace movement, everybody. There is in it such an air of absurdity and moral void, even where conscience and morality are invoked (as they are by everyone). The joint is going into a slow frenzy. The country is nuts.”
— Dec 29, 2018 07:56AM
Kathleen
is on page 166 of 288
I still don’t understand this, but it’s such an awesome statement I’ll keep trying: “a monastery is not a snail’s shell nor is religious faith a kind of spiritual fallout shelter into which one can plunge to escape the criminal realities of an apocalyptic age.”
— Dec 20, 2018 01:02AM
Kathleen
is on page 154 of 288
Dorothy Day be rolling her eyes at Thomas’ letters like, “Why so serious?” But Merton’s insistence on interfaith dialogues is interesting, and may be an element that Pope Francis particularly admires about him.
— Dec 19, 2018 10:29AM
Kathleen
is on page 130 of 288
Now Merton just seems eccentric, oscillating between contentment and a burning desire to be even more alone. I don’t understand how you can be so stressed as a monk. It’s a shame his one interaction with a psychiatrist went poorly - he definitely could have used a good one to find peace with himself.
— Dec 19, 2018 07:30AM
Kathleen
is on page 116 of 288
For someone who lives a contemplative life at a secluded monastery, Merton deals with lots of internal turmoil. More a function of personality than situation? I’d probably find something to worry about even if left alone in my thoughts
— Dec 18, 2018 12:22PM
Kathleen
is on page 91 of 288
This transcendental pacifist quotes have you rolling along until you’re like... wow. Wait you voluntarily joined a place that doesn’t allow beds? Merton’s family life was also incredibly tragic. The latest family death nearly had me in tears it was so sudden. Perhaps the hardship was how he “punished” himself for being alone in the world.
— Dec 18, 2018 09:46AM
Kathleen
is on page 48 of 288
Unconnected observations: 1) Incredibly tragic Tom’s 5 caregivers die by the time he’s in college. 2) People really did travel all around the world before planes. Regularly. 3) Like Dorothy Day, encouraging to see Merton’s life before he found the Catholic Church... these really were normal people who took up abnormal responsibilities in the name of God
— Nov 25, 2018 10:33AM
