Upper Room Inclusive Catholic Community - Liturgies, Rituals and Ministries: 2024

Mystic Moment: Thomas Merton Fr. Louis, OCSO

January 31, 1915 –December 10, 1968

Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81507551772
Meeting ID: 815 0755 1772
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OPENING PRAYER

Holy One, we come to you with love and gratitude for the life and teaching of Thomas Merton. His life inspires us as we continually seek ways to understand

our struggles to connect to the Divine, and our commitment to being the hands,

feet, and heart of our brother Jesus in the world. Grant us insight and courage to study this contemporary of ours: the mystic, poet, social activist, contemplative, priest, Trappist monk, and author. May we be enlightened by his words, energized by his drive to take on new paths throughout his life, and activated by his openness to speaking truth to power when we experience hate and violence in our world today. Amen

VIDEO 1 Short Life of Thomas Merton

https://youtu.be/ttgXQXpltQE

READING 1

The spirituality, social justice, and interfaith dialogue of Thomas Merton, who died in 1968, may be more relevant today than ever before.

For this exploration of mystic life, let us imagine ourselves sitting under a tree on the grounds of the Abbey of Gethsemane, central Kentucky. We watch Father Louis, Thomas Merton’s monastic name, as he walks around the wooded area of his hermitage, and we wonder what he would have to share with us if his life had not been cut short by his death at age 53. For this exploration, we will peek at his early life, follow the path of his formation and progression as a contemplative monk and prolific author, and breathe in awe and wonder of his later years as a social activist monk who profoundly influenced Christianity and the world in the 20^th Century.

The mental genius, spiritual sanctity, prolific writing, scholarly work of comparative religions, and social activism of Thomas Merton is astounding, considering his tumultuous early life. The Merton family was in frequent flux. Thomas’ mother was American, his father from New Zealand; they met at art school in Paris. Moving to New York after Thomas was born, they lived a Bohemian life-style, until his mother died of stomach cancer in 1921 when he was six. From then on, Thomas’ father, Owen Merton, moved frequently. They lived in several countries, changing educational styles and settings, losing and making friendships, with no specific religious influence. Thomas was orphaned at age 16 when his father died. At times he lived briefly with grandparents, but mostly travelled Europe without finding a happy and satisfying life. His early years left him with a deep sense of insecurity, depressive thinking, and a belief that he was unloved and unlovable.

Merton’s Hermitage Gethsemane Abbey by Silas House

PRAYER 2 Thomas Merton’s Prayer

https://www.youtube.com/embed/vfvkl2QGT5s

VIDEO 2 Interview with Fr. Richard Rohr on Thomas Merton https://www.youtube.com/embed/cEhnmikd15Q

The Monks at Gethsemane Abbey

READING 2

Thomas blasted through a rather wild and adventurous youth. After matriculating at Cambridge University in England, he was not invited back for his second year due to his lifestyle, his extracurricular behavior of “wild living”. Crossing the pond, he was accepted at Columbia University in New York. There he met the Hindu monk, “MB” (Mahanambrata Brahmachari) who heavily influenced him. To his surprise, the monk recommended he read the Confessions of St. Augustine (354–430) and Thomas à Kempis’ (ca. 1380–1471) the Imitation of Christ. So, after years of agnosticism, Thomas was baptized into the Catholic Church in 1938 while at Columbia. The turmoil of his early years bubbled up into a deep desire to truly learn to pray, and bubbled over into his vocation to the priesthood, with a longing for the contemplative life. He travelled to the front gate of Gethsemane Abbey, out in the country in Kentucky about 50 miles south of Louisville. Here it began, on December 10, 1941, Thomas Merton entered the gates of the Abbey of Gethsemane, a community of 55 monks belonging to the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, (OCSO), called Trappists, the most ascetic Roman Catholic monastic order, burning for solitude with the Holy One.

Gethsemane Trappist Abbey, Kentucky

St. Ann’s: Merton’s First Toolshed Hermitage

PRAYER 3

VIDEO 3 Soul Searching: The Journey of Thomas Merton Clip 2

https://www.youtube.com/embed/rmG1ZE9Qkc0

READING 3

His notoriety was unexpected, and with it Thomas’s longing for solitude and a hidden life grew exponentially stronger. He badgered Abbot Dom James Fox that he be allowed to live in a hermitage, alone with God. The Trappists are not an eremitical order, they live in community. He was denied, denied, denied, then finally allowed to spend some hours a day apart from community in an old tool shed, which he named “St. Ann’s”. Finally, after more eloquently articulated requests for a hermitage, and a new Novice Master elected, Thomas was given a full-time hermitage. So, in 1965, age 50, he climbed the hill a mile from the abbey to live full-time in solitude. This was the first time ever in that Abbey a monk was allowed to live apart from community. Imagine his jubilation at being alone with his Beloved!

A MYSTIC WITH A HISTORICAL MARKER

On March 18th, 1958, after a doctor’s appointment, Fr. Louis had a mystical experience. In his words:

“In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness… This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud… I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.”

READING 4

After many years never leaving the Abbey, Thomas developed medical issues related to a fused cervical disc in his back, and was sent to the hospital in Louisville several times in 1963. This is the time of the Vietnam War and Civil Rights actions, and Thomas soaked this in from his hospital bed. TV, newspapers, and radio blared information about the assassination of JFK, race riots in Birmingham, and Dr. Martin Luther King’s civil rights work. Merton said at this time: “What there is in the South is not a negro problem but a white problem.” He recognized the tumultuous changes in society from when he entered the Abbey in 1941. "The times they are a changin,” sang Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. His social conscience lit a fire in his chest, and poured out in his letters to persons in the civil rights movement and spiritual leaders. The Catholic Church began censoring his publications voicing opposition to the Vietnam war and support of civil disobedience. He said, “How do we treat this other Christ, this person who happens to be black?” Merton was one of the first white intellectuals who extended a hand of peace to the black community.

Merton’s writing had shifted from the deeply contemplative of his early monastic years to social criticism, nonviolence, pacifism, and the nuclear arms race. He met the Dalai Lama, MLK, and Thich Nhat Hahn during these days in the 60’s, and, after a change in Abbot’s at Gethsemane, was allowed to go on speaking tours to Western Monasteries in the US. After meeting and finding common spiritual ground with Eastern Religion contemplatives, Merton began to write about how Christians could utilize some Eastern Religion’s mystical practice and ideation. Remember, this was the early 1960’s, and our present-day melding of beliefs,

Thomas Merton and Thich Nhat Hanh

changes that occurred as a result of Vatical II, and social and cultural movements were not yet part of U.S. culture. Interfaith dialog was one of his major gifts to us, as he introduced Eastern mysticism to Western Christianity.

In December of 1968, Thomas Merton went to a conference in Thailand for the purpose of discussion and dialogue on the mysticism of East and West. It was here, on December 10^th, the same day he had entered the Abbey of Gethsemane in 1941, that Thomas Merton died. There remain deep, disturbing ideas about the cause of his death. “There is often something inexplicable about the death of great men.” There is so much written by Thomas Merton we could spend a lifetime studying his work. We are grateful for his urging to find the fulness of our Baptism in Christ, to be “missionary disciples” as Pope Francis urges in “Evangelii Gaudium” rather than medieval distorted ecclesiology. May the mystic monk energize and guide us as we journey.

CLOSING MEDITATION SONG by Judy Collins Thomas Merton Lyrics

https://youtu.be/HV4v-qHh_fk

[Verse 1]

The wind sang in the bare woods and Thomas prayed by the trees

I heard him whisper through my dreams that life was a reprise

I met him on the mountain, seven times we walked

I heard his voice and saw his life and listened to his talk

[Verse 2]

People came from far away to stand there by the river

They saw his life, they saw his home, a searcher and believer

He visited with holy men, hе meant to find the answer

Hе saw all wars were evil and the devil was the dancer

[Chorus]

He dreamed of being an eagle with wings he would fly

From the west to the north to the east

Through rain and sleet, through wind and snow

He'd find his way to bring us peace

[Verse 3]

When his heart led him to the place where he would die

The Dalai Lama welcomed him to Thailand

Prayers were prayed and joy was spread and hearts were filled with calm

But in the afternoon Thomas Merton's life was gone

[Verse 4]

The story was that he had died stepping from the bath

Shocked by the electricity that lay there in his path

In holy robes the deed was done as the stars were shining bright

Years went by and lies were told would the truth not come to light

In Memoriam: Thomas Merton by John Moffit

December 10, 1968

By his death we are not diminished.

He has entered

into the space of thought,

he walks on the light

and serves where he serves.

In his death

surely we have no cause for dismay,

being not diminished.

When, in this little after hour,

death sounds our summons,

we too shall walk on the light

if our cup is rinsed,

and serve where we serve,

with him in our Lord

joined in perpetual act of creating.

By his death and ours

surely we are increased,

we are not diminished.

References and Resources

Merton, T. (1970). The Wisdom of the Desert. New Directions Publishing.

Merton, T. (1975). The Asian journal of Thomas Merton. New Directions Pub. Corp.

Merton, T. (1999). Mystics and Zen Masters. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Merton, T. (2002). The Sign of Jonas. HMH.

Merton, T. (2003). When the Trees Say Nothing. Ave Maria Press.

Merton, T. (2004). The way of Chuang Tzu. Shambhala.

Merton, T. (2007). New seeds of contemplation. New Directions Book.

Merton, T. (2009a). A Year with Thomas Merton. Harper Collins.

Merton, T. (2009b). Conjectures of a guilty bystander. Image Books/Doubleday.

Merton, T. (2010a). The Other Side of the Mountain. Harper Collins.

Merton, T. (2010b). The Silent Life. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Merton, T. (2010c). Zen and the Birds of Appetite. New Directions Publishing.

Merton, T. (2011). Thoughts In Solitude. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Merton, T. (2013). Thomas Merton - Spiritual Direction and Meditation. Read Books Ltd.

Merton, T. (2014). The Intimate Merton. HarperCollins e-Books.

Merton, T. (2015). The Seven Storey Mountain. Spck.

Merton, T. (2017). A Course in Christian Mysticism. Liturgical Press.

Merton, T., & Bochen, C. M. (2000). Thomas Merton : essential writings. Orbis Books.

Merton, T., & Nhất Hạnh, Thích. (2014). Contemplative prayer. Image.

VIDEO

The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton 45.13 Provides a view that Thomas Merton was murdered, not electrocuted by a faulty electric fan, in the same year that MLK was murdered, and RFK was murdered.

https://youtu.be/8MqHLzMXudM