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Thomas Merton |
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January 31, 1915 - December 10, 1968
“The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image, otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.”
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Thomas Merton
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Thomas Merton is probably the most influential American Catholic author of the twentieth century. His most famous book is his autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, written in 1948. Merton was educated in France, England and Columbia University. It was at Columbia that he converted to Roman Catholicism. On December 10, 1941, he entered the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky, a community of monks known as Trappists, the most ascetic Roman Catholic monastic order. Merton experienced a sense of solidarity with the human race—not simply in sin, but in grace. For years he had devoted his creative thought to the meaning of monastic and contemplative life. Then he began to make connections between the monastery and the wider world, writing on war, racism and other issues of the day. He was a strong voice for peace and nonviolence. His writings became so controversial that he was ordered to remain silent on “political” topics. After the Second Vatican Council he was finally freed from censorship. Thomas Merton continued to work on the balance between contemplative prayer and openness to the world, which had become the distinctive mark of his spirituality. His writings reflect his journey of selfawareness, and as he became more aware of the world around him, he became a peace activist and was a great example of Christian faith in action. Merton died in 1968 in Bangkok, Thailand. |
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