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This is
possibly the longest of the extracts from Patrick Collins' essay on the
Spirituality of Thomas Merton that we will be publishing. It is long because
in this section Fr Patrick goes off scouring the correspondence of Merton
in search of his views on different aspects of prayer and we thought it
best to keep all these thoughts together in one commentary.
Merton related his intense awareness of the nearness of Heaven in The
Seven Storey Mountain which seems quite in line with his later
thoughts on the subject, namely, mysticism as a vision of love.
"It was something that made
me realize, all of a sudden, not merely intellectually, but experimentally,
the real uselessness of what I had been half deliberately looking for:
the visions of the ceiba trees. And this experience opened another door,
not a way to a kind of writing but a way into a world infinitely new,
a world that was out of this world of ours entirely and which transcended
it infinitely, and which was not a world, but which was God himself. But
what a thing it was, this awareness: it was so intangible, and yet it
struck me like a thunderclap. It was a light that was so bright that it
had no relation to any visible light … And yet the thing that struck
me most of all was that this light was in a certain sense 'ordinary' -
it was a light (and this most of all was what took my breath away) that
was offered to all, to everybody, and there was nothing fancy or strange
about it. It was the light of faith deepened and reduced to an extreme
and sudden obviousness. It was as if I had been suddenly illuminated by
being blinded by the manifestation of God's presence. The reason why this
light was blinding and neutralizing was that there was and could be simply
nothing in it of sense or imagination … it disarmed all images, all
metaphors, and cut through the whole skein of species and phantasms with
which we naturally do our thinking. It ignored all sense experience in
order to strike directly at the heart of truth … But this contact
was not something speculative and abstract: it was concrete and experimental
and belonged to the order of knowledge, yes, but more still to the order
of love. Another thing about it was that this light was something far
above and beyond the level of any desire or any appetite I had ever yet
been aware of … It was love as clean and direct as vision …
And the first articulate thought that came to my mind was: 'Heaven is
right here in front of me: Heaven, Heaven!'" (Thomas
Merton Reader, pp 81-82 from The Seven Storey Mountain)
Thomas Merton's approach to spirituality as the journey from the false
self toward the True Self is grounded in the universalities and commonalities
of the great contemplative traditions of the world. In his published letters
the Trappist wrote extensively of his thoughts about contemplative prayer
and the contemplative living which is the fruit of such praying. All of
this was born, not just of his study, but of his own experience of prayer
— about which he wrote very little. Dom Flavian Burns, in his funeral
homily for Father Louis Merton, said that Merton wrote a great deal about
prayer but his own prayer life remained largely a secret.
We do, however, have a description of a prayer experience of Merton's from his pilgrimage to Cuba as a lay person in 1939. While it was largely
vocal prayer, the seeds of contemplative praying are clearly in evidence.
"…my prayer continued to be largely
vocal. And the mental prayer I made was not systematic, but the more or
less spontaneous meditating and affective prayer that came and went, according
to my reading, here and there. And most of the time my prayer was not
so much prayer as a matter of anticipating, with hope and desire, my entrance
into the Franciscan novitiate, and a certain amount of imagining as to
what it was going to be like, so that often I was not praying at all but
only daydreaming." (Thomas Merton
Reader p 84, from The Seven Storey Mountain)
The gap in our understanding of what Thomas Merton's personal prayer
was like is filled in to some extent in a 1966 letter to Abdul Aziz who
had asked him about his experience in prayer. The monk said that his prayer
was very simple. "It is centered entirely
on attention to the presence of God and to His will and His love. That
is to say it is centered on faith by which alone we can know the presence
of God... as 'being before God as if you saw Him.'" He
added: "My prayer is then a kind of praise
rising up out of the center of Nothingness and Silence.. It is not "thinking
about' anything, but a direct seeking of the face of the Invisible. Which
cannot be found unless we become lost in Him who is Invisible."
(Abdul Aziz, January 2, 1966 HGL 63-64)
Merton's personal experience of prayer found him both in and out of time,
in but not of this world, if you will. "In
prayer we journey forward to our origin … We go to our place of prayer
confident that in prayer we transcend both place and time … In prayer,
we experience this going back to our origins as a going into the center
of our self, where God holds both our origin and end in one eternal moment."
(Ibid)
Praying — more than techniques and words!
Forms of prayer were very secondary to Thomas Merton. Praying was what
mattered and this was always more than techniques and words. When asked
by John Harris in 1959 to recommend a form of prayer, Merton wrote about
an Eastern form of meditation which is more mantra-like than verbal. He
recommended the Russian and Greek approach "where
you get off somewhere quiet, remember what you may have known about hatha-yoga,
breathe quietly and rhythmically with the diaphragm, holding your breath
for a bit each time and letting it out easily: and while holding it, saying
'in your heart' (aware of the place of your heart, as if the words were
spoken in the very center of your being with all the sincerity you can
muster): 'Lord Jesus Christ Son of God have mercy on me a sinner.' Just
keep saying this for a while, of course with faith, and the awareness
of the indwelling, etc. It is a simple form of prayer, and fundamental,
and the breathing part makes it easier to keep your mind on what you are
doing. That's about as far as I go with methods. After that, pray as the
Spirit moves you, but of course I would say follow the Mass in a missal
unless there is a good reason for doing something else, like floating
suspended ten feet above the congregation."
The Trappist admitted that he liked praying the rosary. While he confessed
to not being very articulate about his Marian devotion, he was "pretty
much wound up in Our Lady, and have some Russian ideas about her too:
that she is the most perfect expression of the mystery of the Wisdom of
God. That is some way she is the Wisdom of God." (Harris,
John 6.22.59 HGL 392)
From a theological perspective the Trappist wrote of prayer as grounded
in the intercommunion that is the Trinity. To Etta Gullick, in 1965, he
said that Trinitarian prayer dissolves the apparent 'I' — the individual
ego self into unitive love. He said that words about Trinity can give
the impression that it is about 'three objects' which one is experiencing.
"The ancient way of looking at it, 'to the
Father in the Son by the Holy Spirit,' reminds us of the unity and the
un-objective character of it. And yet they are Three, or we are in their
Three and One in the Three. The authenticity of the experience depends
on the dissolution of the apparent 'I' that can seem to stand outside
all this as subject and observe it from somewhere else."
He thought that, among moderns, the most authentic expression of the experience
is that of the Carmelite, Elizabeth of the Trinity. (Gullick,
Etta 1.25.65 HGL 195-66)
In 1965 Merton wrote again to Gullick about the growing interest in prayer
among people in the United States. But he questioned whether such a supposedly
interior quest was well-founded. He saw this mostly in academic circles
as a rather mixed-up context of psychoanalysis and Zen Buddhism. "This
is the area where people at the moment are most interested in our kind
of contemplation. The Catholics are all hopped up about liturgy at the
moment." (Gullick, Etta 11.1.65 HGL
373)
Merton on intercessory prayer…
Several times during 1965 the monk commented on intercessory prayer.
It was not to him the most important sense of the prayer action or experience.
As he wrote to Dom Francis Decroix, "…we
must be careful not to present prayer as a mere formal duty or to emphasize
the prayer of petition." (Decroix,
Dom Francis 8.22.67 HGL 158-9) Regarding such intercession he told
Marco Pallis in 1965 that it certainly was no problem to him whatever
and never had been. In his writings he said he had never really dealt
extensively with that question. Perhaps dealing with it might just make
it more of a problem without helping those for whom it is a problem. (Pallis,
Marco 6.17.65 HGL 470) To Etta Gullick, Merton wrote some very
concrete advice about including specific persons and events in one's prayer.
"…as to intercession: let each do what
he likes. Sometimes I remember a lot of people by name, other times not...
But obvious in one's meditation etc. one does not go dragging a lot of
people in, unless it is an unusual situation." He thought that in
this whole question of prayer we make too many problems out of what one
should do and what one should not do. These are entirely personal matters.
In the same person they vary from moment to moment. "The great thing
is not to say that lists of names are bad or lists of names are good,
but to let the person himself come to know by discernment of spirits when
he should 'intercede' for people by name and when not."
(Gullick, Etta 11.11.65 HGL 374)
How does one measure one's growth in prayer?
How does one measure one's growth in prayer? What would constitute "progress"
according to Thomas Merton?
In 1965 Etta Gullick asked him how one can judge one's progress in prayer.
He warned her, in response, about the danger of too much self-focus in
this matter of "measuring" one's prayer. He contended that it
is a ticklish subject because the chief obstacle to progress is too much
self-awareness and to talk about 'how to make progress' is a good way
to make people too aware of themselves. "In
the long run I think progress in prayer comes from the Cross and humiliation
and whatever makes us really experience our total poverty and nothingness,
and also gets our mind off ourselves." He concluded by
saying he had a certain repugnance in telling people specifically what
do in the realm of the spiritual. (Gullick, Etta 8.1.66
HGL 376)
Perhaps one of Thomas Merton's most profound theological reflections
on prayer expressed in his published letters is contained in a 1967 letter
to Dom Francis Decroix. It is thoroughly Trinitarian in its roots and
focus. First he cautioned against presenting prayer as a mere formal duty
or to emphasize the prayer of petition. "We
should bear in mind that Marx taught an interesting doctrine about religious
alienation, which is a consequence of regarding God as distant and purely
transcendent and putting all our hope for every good in the future life,
not realizing God's presence to us in this life, and not realizing that
prayer means contact with the deepest reality of life, our own truth in
Him."
He claimed that prayer is the truest guarantee of personal freedom. "We
are most truly free in the free encounter of our heart with God in His
word and in receiving His Spirit which is the Spirit of sonship, truth
and freedom. The Truth that makes us free is not merely a matter of information
about God but the presence in us of a divine person by love and grace,
bringing us into the intimate personal life of God as His Sons by adoption.
This is the basis of all prayer and all prayer should be oriented to this
mystery of sonship in which the Spirit in us recognizes the Father. The
cry of the Spirit in us, the cry of recognition that we are Sons in the
Son, is the heart of our prayer and the great motive of prayer. Hence
recollection is not the exclusion of material things but attentiveness
to the Spirit in our inmost heart."
He concluded by insisting that the contemplative life should not be regarded
as the exclusive prerogative of those who dwell in monastic walls. All
persons can seek and find this intimate awareness and awakening which
is a gift of love and a vivifying touch of creative and redemptive power.
"Far from being the cause of alienation,
true religion in spirit is a liberating force that helps man to find himself
in God." (Decroix, Dom Francis 8.22.67
HGL 158-9)
Meditation's role in prayer…
The final words about prayer found in Thomas Merton's published letters
date from January, 1968. He wrote some very practical advice to Abdul
Aziz about the role of meditation in prayer. In learning to meditate he
said that people must learn to get along without any support external
to his own heart and the gifts of God. He suggested remaining in silence
without reading or even using vocal prayers sometimes. This is not a universal
rule, however, since there are times when it is necessary to read, and
even to read quite a lot, in order to store up material and get new perspectives.
He sensed that in the solitary life, though one has a lot of time for
reading, it becomes difficult to read a great deal. In a couple of hours
one may read only a few pages. The rest of the time is spent in reflection
and prayer. It becomes difficult to absorb more than this. "Someone
in solitude who would read voraciously all the time might perhaps be considered
in the wrong place. Moderate reading is, however, normal. Provided that
more time is spent in prayer and meditation than in reading…"
(Abdul Aziz 1.16.68 HGL 66)
Much can be learned about contemplation from Thomas Merton's uncensored
writing about this subject in his published letters. Interestingly - and
perhaps sadly — most of his best correspondence about contemplation
is not with "official" contemplatives — like those in Holy
Orders or in religious vows. It is with the laity and usually with persons
who were not in the Roman Catholic community. One question which Merton addressed many times is that of the extent of God's call to contemplation.
Is it a vocation for a few favored persons? Or are all of the baptized
called to contemplation? The answer depends upon what means by contemplation.
At times, depending upon the meaning of the word and the context of the
correspondence, the Trappist says it is a special gift and yet he also
says all persons are called to contemplative living. In fact he wrote
in one place: "Christ came on earth to form
contemplatives."
One of his frequent correspondents on the topic was Anglican laywoman,
Etta Gullick, who apparently wrote to Merton frequently about contemplation.
In 1961 Merton seemed to judge that contemplation is not for everyone.
"I do not think strictly that contemplation
should be the goal of 'all devout souls,' ... In reality I think a lot
of them should be very good and forget themselves in virtuous action and
love and let the contemplation come in the window unheeded, so to speak.
They will be contemplatives without ever really knowing it. I feel that
in the monastery here those who are too keen on being contemplatives with
a capital C make of contemplation an 'object' from which they are eternally
separated, because they are always holding it at arms' length in order
to see if it is there."
He commented on how we are called to love God more than anything yet
at the same time there must be "a measure
of self-preservation." We learn to love God in and through
all that exists. "We must not hold them
apart one from the other. But He must be One in all and Is. There comes
a time when one loses everything, even love. Apparently. Even oneself,
above all oneself. And this will take care of the rapture and all the
rest because who will there be to be rapt?" (Gullick
Etta 9.9.61 HGL 345-346)
Contemplation cannot be explained — it can only be
hinted at or suggested…
Contemplation, the Trappist contended, cannot be explained. It can only
be hinted at or suggested. It is only "known" in the doing of
contemplative praying and living. He wrote to Gullick in 1962 of the inadequacy
of all explanatory words. "The nothingness
and emptiness are more important than their explanations, and I think
you will find eventually that explanations are not needed... And at the
other end of it all, the least thing is to understand oneself, at least
to feel that one understands himself well." (Gullick,
Etta 3.30.62 HGL 351)
How does one learn contemplative prayer and living? Thomas Merton says
it cannot be taught. No one teaches contemplation but God. He wrote
of this to Gullick in 1964. While not taught, a certain aptitude for
it can be awakened. He judged that many have such an aptitude and
readiness. "The important thing is that
this be made real and credible by someone who knows by experience what
it is, and who can make it real to those in whom it begins to awaken.
In a word it is a question of showing them in a mysterious way by example
how to proceed. Not by the example of doing, but the example of being,
and by one's attitude toward life and things." Merton noted that Gullick had such an aptitude and a vocation to help others
awaken. He advised her to let God use here in whatever way He wills. "…and
be sure you do not get in his way with misplaced initiatives."
(Gullick, Etta 6.15.64 HGL 367)
Later in that same summer of 1964 Merton expressed himself to Gullick in terms which perhaps reflect some growing Zen influence in his understanding
of contemplation: "I have greater and greater
confidence in the reality of the path that is no path at all, and to see
people follow it in spite of everything is comforting. By rights they
should all have forgotten and lost their way long ago. If they keep on
it without really knowing what it is, this is because God keeps them there."
(Gullick, Etta 9.12.64 HGL 367)
A few months later in 1964 the Trappist wrote to his long-time friend
in New York, Catherine de Hueck Doherty, about the impossibility of "obtaining"
contemplation through human efforts or techniques. Forgetting the self
is the avenue to follow. Those immature in the spiritual life are very
centered on a 'self' for which they want to attain the best of ends. "…they
want to possess 'contemplation' and 'God.' But to think contemplation
is something that one can 'attain' and 'possess' is just to get off on
the wrong road from the very beginning. What they really need is …
to shut up and stop all their speculation and get down to living a simple
laborious life in which they forget themselves." (Catherine
de Hueck Doherty, November 21, 1964 HGL 22)
Contemplation is not meant to remove persons from the world. It is to
make them ever more present to concrete, historical realities. But a contemplative
becomes engaged in such external actions at a much more profound level
of awarness and presence. In his first years in monastic life Father Louis had emphasized the withdrawal from action in the world in favor of what
he understood to be contemplation. But later he realized that contemplation
has to be integrated into an active life. He told the Jesuit, Daniel Berrigan,
in 1963 that he had gone through the whole gamut in this business. "In
the beginning I was all pro-contemplation, because I was against the kind
of trivial and meaningless activism, the futile running around in circles
that Superiors, including contemplative Superiors, promote at the drop
of a hat." (Daniel Berrigan June.25.63
HGL 78)
NAVIGATION: PART I | PART
II | PART
III | PART
IV | PART
V | PART
VI
Photo
Credits:
The background images used in the headline are sourced from stock.xchng
and are the work of Kay Pat, New Delhi, India. URL: www.sxc.hu/profile/KayPat.
The image of Thomas Merton used in the text was sourced from Thomas Merton
Books website at: www.thomasmertonbooks.com/about_us.asp
Other images by Brian Coyne
 Fr
Patrick W. Collins PhD lives in Michigan and has long been
very supportive of our endeavours here at Catholica
Australia. Fr Collins retired from active ministry earlier
last year but one suspects that "retirement" is the inappropriate
descriptor. It's more like a change of direction as to how he continues
his ministry. On his own website (www.vatican2.org/patrickcollins/)
he describes himself as "author, preacher, musician and university
professor. He senses that his principal vocation is to contemplative living
— out of which his various ministries flow. In addition to numerous
books and articles, Fr. Collins has produced forty-five TV programs, and
a number of videos, among them Thomas
Merton: Man, Monk, Myth with Music. Fr. Collins
presents various kinds of retreats, missions, and workshops, including
what he calls 'spiritual concerts' which combine texts and tunes for spiritual
insight and growth. This approach gives a feelingful dimension to the
meaning of the words and connects head with heart, reason and imagination.
He calls it "Music with a Message."
What are your thoughts on Patrick's commentary?
You can contribute to the discussion in our forum.
Patrick can be contracted through his own website at: www.vatican2.org/patrickcollins/.
©2007Patrick
W Collins
[Index of commentaries
by Patrick Collins]
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