merton

Last night in our meditative writing class, Susan shared with us several excerpts from Thomas Merton's journals.

Wonderful entries -- it would have been a great blog -- and somewhat different from his spiritual essays.

Many years ago I went on a couple of weekend retreats at New Melleray, the Trappist monastery outside of Dubuque, Iowa. Once, in that period, I visited a friend who was in seminary in Louisville, and we drove down on a Sunday night to Gesthemani, the monastery where Merton had lived as a monk.

The journal entries that we read last night were simple. No stained glass in his thoughts, but a strong underlying assumption of grace, and an openness to seeing new things in the landscape around him.