A 40-Year Memory - The Death of Thomas Merton

Thomas Merton (31 January 1915 – 10 December 1968) was one of the most influential Catholic writers of the 20th century. A Trappist monk of the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, in the U.S. state of Kentucky, Merton was a prolific poet, a social activist, a student of comparative religion as well as the author of numerous acclaimed works on spirituality. He wrote more than 60 books, scores of essays and reviews, and is the subject of several biographies. Merton was a keen proponent of inter-religious understanding, engaging in spiritual dialogues with the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh and D. T. Suzuki. His life and career were suddenly cut short at the age of 53, when he was electrocuted stepping out of his bath.
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I knew nothing of Thomas Merton at the time. I would learn later of his penetrating mind and deeply spiritual "wanderings." I would also become aware of what was lost 40 years ago today when his life came to a sad accidental end.

To remember his life and death today here are some powerful quotes from his writings from Brainy Quote web site:

• A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual at all. No man can serve two masters. Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire.

• Advertising treats all products with the reverence and the seriousness due to sacraments.

• Be good, keep your feet dry, your eyes open, your heart at peace and your soul in the joy of Christ.

• By reading the scriptures I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me. The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green. The whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music under my feet.

• Just remaining quietly in the presence of God, listening to Him, being attentive to Him, requires a lot of courage and know-how.

• Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience.