I highly recommend this book by Thomas Merton. It tells the remarkable story of his conversion to the Catholic faith and his joining a Trapist monastery. It is truly inspiring.

It was one of the first books I read when I started exploring Catholicism.

Absolutely read Seven Storey Mountain. Avoid anything else by Merton

What is the problem with other Merton books? Haven't read any yet, but have "Ascent to Truth" on the shelf.

Merton was very big on exploring other religions, mostly Eastern, and for the baby xtian, and other not so baby, he can be confusing, causing you to think that religions are mix and match. He was a smart, devoted monk but struggled with a desire to get involved in temporal causes and in relationships not suited to his religious vows.

I personally didn't adore his bio but if you must read his stuff his early work is more .... appropriate. Thread w care.

Merton, particularly in his later years, tended to be something of a syncretist..

Something of a syncretist?

That's like saying that Moby Dick tended to be a little on the large side!

thanks for the insight

Thomas Merton.
From wikipedia concerning the derivation of the name:

"
Merton priory became distinguished as an important centre of learning attracting such pupils as Nicholas Breakspeare in 1125 (who became Adrian IV, the first English Pope, in 1154), and Thomas Becket in 1130.
"

I'm not sure what this is supposed to mean.

HalJordan,
Merton is a suburb of South West London. I was guessing there is a connection between his surname and the location of England's first Pope.

Ah

"Ascent to Truth" is one of his earlier books, and draws much from St. John of the Cross.
I have read it many years ago and was inspired by it.

Many years after that I got "Zen and the Birds of Appetite" from the library, and was perplexed and disappointed in it.

Hello Doom,

Please give examples. I've read about seven books by Fr. Merton and think Life and Holiness, No Man Is an Island and New Seeds of Contemplation (I especially liked the chapter "The Woman Clothed with the Sun" explaining many reasons why, according to Catholicism, the Virgin Mary is important) are very good to excellent.

Perhaps a year or two ago on this site, someone did furnish a single line from a poem that seemed heterodox at best and more likely wrong, but I've not seen anything else.

Thank you,
Irenaeus

Why bother with him at all is my attitude? There are plenty of spiritual writings written by holy men and women who ended their days without scandal, without falling from their vocation. God alone knows Merton's soul, but a man who could not be faithful to his vocation, or even to celibacy* is hardly one to recommend as a spiritual guide. Even before he went that far, he continually disobeyed his abbot, went around him and still had him to thanks that his emotional immaturity and personal instability did not completely overcome him in the 60's.

Now I assume you have seen the book mentioned earlier her about "Zen and..." and are aware of his promotion of "Zen asceticism" as well as his violation of his vocation to be politically active? So even if there were no obviously heterodox aspects of his writings, why both? Read something of a saint if you want sure direction to holiness. Pray for Merton, but do not trust his writings as a spiritual guide.

*I have heard the defense of this, but for a monk in his fifties to be "sexually intimate" with a girl in her twenties is outrageous even if not "consummated". That he continued the affair and wrote love poems and such is just ludicrous.

I could link on the subject

http://rcspiritualdirection.com/blog/20 ... qus_thread

Merton's little booklet Spiritual Direction and Meditation is a gem and should be considered a contemporary classic. In it Merton dispenses simple, direct, clear, and no-nonsense catholic wisdom for both directors and directees. The book is a good window into his mind and heart, and it represents the very best of Merton, in my view--and that very best is very good indeed. A good spiritual director need not be a saint.

There I beg to differ in some measure. A saint is far better at spiritual direction, precisely because he actually possesses wisdom, whereas someone else, to the degree they fall from sanctification, may have theoretical understanding but lacks wisdom and will not be as sure a good.

I quite agree. Although it seems that even an ordinary Christian holiness, not heroic, but real, is somewhat rare. Merton prefers spiritual directors to be theologians, and ceteris paribus the holy man is the better theologian and therefore the better director.

I'm really enjoying Seven Storey Mountain.

The conversational tone he writes in makes it very accessible.

His insight on his father's struggling with the tumor as being a test for his father's soul and how: