Thomas Merton
1915-1968 20th century
The search for God in silence, and the desire to please him even when the way stays dark.
Who was Thomas Merton?
A brilliant, dissolute young man, orphaned early, he converted at twenty-three and entered the Trappist abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky in 1941. A Cistercian monk, he became despite the enclosure one of the most widely read spiritual writers of the twentieth century, a bridge between the West and the wisdoms of the East, a voice for peace and against war. He died accidentally in Asia in 1968, at the end of a long road toward unity.
In their own words
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end.
The fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
At the corner of Fourth and Walnut, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs.