Thursday, December 10, 2009

Blessed Thomas Merton (1915-1968)

Fr. M. Louis, OCSO

Birthplace of Thomas Merton, Prades, France

"Ici est né
Thomas Merton
Ecrivain American"


Thomas Merton was a man of words. His words grabbed hold of me when I was an awkward high school seminarian, learning how to meditate at 6:00 AM each morning! I rarely understood what he was saying, but somehow my heart and soul "knew" and absorbed it, and continues to process it all these many years later. Somehow Advent is uniquely a "Merton time": a time of simplicity, quiet, and complete focus on the Holy One who has come, is coming, and will come again. In Dialogues with Silence, edited by Jonathan Montaldo, we read this random prayer of Merton's, extremely fitting for our Advent journey:

God, have mercy on me in the blindness
in which I hope I am seeking You!

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