For those who know Thomas Merton well

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Did he start to drift too far into Eastern mysticism in his later years? Or is that just a forever debated topic, and it all depends on who you ask?
 
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If you are asking for an opinion, it would be mine that in line with the documents of Vatican 2 and the previous “us against them” mentality that seemed to be prevalent to some degree prior to the Council, that the Church recognizes that even Eastern religions do speak some truth. How far that goes can be hotly debated, particularly if one has a bias one way or the other.

I have not read Merton, not because of the controversy but because I have more than I can get to already of other writers. However, I have heard many many positive comments about his writings. To the best of my knowledge, neither his abbot nor the Church has made any official comment.

If one is concerned, one could limit any reading of Merton to his earlier works.
 
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I have read some of his earlier books and they are solid. I have, on the other hand, not read any of his later books as I haven’t found them in the local library. (The Religion shelves were only two.)
 
I’ve read (and taught) all of Merton. I have never seen anything contrary to the Catholic faith: just the opposite. To my parents’ generation he was one of those “prophets” whose work, coming before VII, was ahead of its time and thus denounced. You’ll be hard pressed to find anything contrary to the faith in light of VII in his works.
The Seven Storey Mountain remains an excellent autobiography and great apology for Catholicism even though Merton wrote it so early in life.
 
There have to be one miracle before a person can be called a blessed and another one before a person can be called a saint. Few are pronounced saints because of what they taught or wrote and the process of becoming a saint is a very long one. The person have to have been dead on earth for some years as well before the Church can formally say that a person is a saint.

I have heard that there are about 10 000 saints that we know by name. Does anyone have any more info?
 
While it’s not the kind of miracle that can be quantified to “count” for canonization, there are many many many stories from people who say that his writings, especially Seven Storey Mountain, were important in bringing them into the Church.
 
Merton was ahead of his time and his ideas are primarily for people who are open to thinking a bit outside the box, which is not everybody.
I personally don’t have a problem with his stuff, but then again I relate to his approach of simply reinterpreting whatever statements in Zen or whatever are problematic so they work with God.

To the extent he might have been veering off the rails in his later life, and I don’t say for certain he was, I firmly believe that in some cases God calls people home before they can get themselves in trouble on earth. It can be a merciful act of God.
 
Merton is a human being, so his life is as problematic as anyone else’s.

If you can see the good, there is a lot of it there in his life and writings. If you want to see the bad it can probably be found, or even imagined. But why do that?

The Church sees the good in people as Christ did. If not, St Peter cannot be St Peter as he denied the Christ he knew personally. That is about as problematic as it gets.
 
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Yes, I knew Fr. Louis, aka Thomas Merton. The monks used to come to our store, dressed in their denim work clothes, to have keys made for the abbey. He usually came in with Fr. Pennington. Once, Merton came in with one of the brothers, who has since gained the reputation as the “enigma” that brings out the worst in people, and my dad asked them to leave.

One of the times Fr. Pennington came with him, I was just a little thing (born in 1963), and asked Merton to pick me up for a hug, which he did. Nearly choked him. He started teaching me the Hail Mary, which displeased my parents.

When I was first old enough to recognize who he was, I was almost disappointed because he didn’t have a nimbus around his head. His name was always spoken with reverence around town.

I was absolutely bummed when I learned he had been shocked to death by a fan in the Far East.

As for his writings, I haven’t really been able to get into them. His friendship with the Buddhists is what put the Catholic world on edge with him. I’ve had friends turn away from Catholicism for Buddhism, and there are many similarities where the recognition of faults and working on them is concerned. I think that was his primary connection with the Buddhists. Today, it’s known as being “interfaith.”

I’ve had other incidences occur which convince me that he is in Paradise. He just needs one miracle for beatification and one for canonization. I spoke with a Trappist monk once about getting Merton canonized, and he said, “Too many writings!” I don’t think his grocery lists (which have been published) would have to be included.

Blessings,
Mrs Cloisters OP
Lay Dominican
http://cloisters.tripod.com/
http://cloisters.tripod.com/charity/
http://cloisters.tripod.com/holyangels/id9.html/
 
Your saying “Too many writings” makes me think his order just doesn’t want to push it due to the cost and the potential failure of the effort.

We are free to privately venerate anybody we think is in heaven. I would guess many people venerate Thomas Merton in that way.

I have never understood why a Catholic would dump Catholicism for Buddhism. To me it seems quite easy to integrate the best of Buddhist practice with Catholicism. But that’s just me, and I’m not theologically deep.
 
Merton.He is a giant.
He is also a product of his era.
His Seven Story Mountain had a great positive influence on my personally.
His was an intellectual who turned Catholic and then monk. I don’t know that he was comfortable in his monk’s robes.
The VietNam war and the peace movement influenced him greatly.
I seem to recall him having a relationship with a woman during his monk’s era.
Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist had some influence on Merton.
 
That’s the thing. There’s a reason I went into engineering rather than scientific research. I’m very practical and do not get deeply into philosophy.

If something is truly helping people live good lives, I say, let’s harness it and use it in a Catholic context - should be easy to do if it’s truly creating good in the world, because it can’t be too far from God, indeed if it’s away from him at all.
 
I have only read Seeds of Contemplation, and I liked it. It takes a bit to digest his writing, well it does for me, but I really got a lot out of reading it.
 
Merton never drifted toward Eastern Mysticism, but engaged with dialogue with the masters of Eastern Religion, as Pope Paul VI requested Catholic Spiritual leaders to do.

This was because back in the 60’s and 70’s, young Catholics were being drawn to Eastern Religions, leaving Catholicism altogether.

In all, Thomas Merton was a Contemplative and as a result, God led him to live a life in a non-dualistic mindset.

His works are some of the best writings in Contemporary Catholicism and I highly recommend his books

Jim
 
Yes, it did sound like it would be too much effort. Even from my younger pre-Catholic days, I’ve always had an urge to get him canonized. There is an effort underway in my hometown to have Bishop Flaget canonized, but he had a lot fewer writings.

I have a common photo of Merton on the bulletin board in front of this desktop I’m on.

I’ve never understood the Catholic-Buddhist connection, either, but I’ve had two friends do it. One is making her way back to the church, but the other is on the Spectrum, and communication with her can be tricky.
 
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