Hence monastic prayer, especially meditation and contemplative prayer, is not so much a way to find God as a way of resting in him whom we have found, who comes to us to draw us to himself. • Thomas Merton Contemplative Prayer, p. 5 • • • In chapter two of Contemplative Prayer, Thomas Merton offers someContinue reading “Merton on Contemplative Prayer (3)”
Category Archives: Contemplation
Merton on Contemplation (2): Contemplative Prayer and Anfechtung
The climate in which monastic prayer flowers is that of the desert, where the comfort of man is absent, where the secure routines of man’s city offer no support, and where prayer must be sustained by God in the purity of faith. Even though he may live in community, the monk is bound to exploreContinue reading “Merton on Contemplation (2): Contemplative Prayer and Anfechtung”
Merton on Contemplation (1)
The curious state of alienation and confusion of man in modern society is perhaps more “bearable” because it is lived in common, with a multitude of distractions and escapes — and also with opportunities for fruitful action and genuine Christian self-forgetfulness. But underlying all life is the ground of doubt and self-questioning which sooner orContinue reading “Merton on Contemplation (1)”
The Internet Monk Archives 