Pope Francis speaks about Thomas Merton in his address to Congress on Thursday, 24 September.

17 24 September, 2015 - Pope Francis speaks about Thomas Merton in his address to Congress

	Pope Francis addressed the United States Congress on Thursday, 24th of September, 2015. During his address, he used four Americans as examples of the type of vision which needs to be applied to today's world problems. The people he chose were Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton. Here are some excerpts from this address.
	My visit takes place at a time when men and women of good will are marking the anniversaries of several great Americans. The complexities of history and the reality of human weakness notwithstanding, these men and women, for all their many differences and limitations, were able by hard work and self-sacrifice – some at the cost of their lives – to build a better future. They shaped fundamental values which will endure forever in the spirit of the American people. A people with this spirit can live through many crises, tensions and conflicts, while always finding the resources to move forward, and to do so with dignity. These men and women offer us a way of seeing and interpreting reality. In honoring their memory, we are inspired, even amid conflicts, and in the here and now of each day, to draw upon our deepest cultural reserves. I would like to mention four of these Americans: Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton. … A century ago, at the beginning of the Great War, which Pope Benedict XV termed a “pointless slaughter”, another notable American was born: the Cistercian monk Thomas Merton. He remains a source of spiritual inspiration and a guide for many people. In his autobiography he wrote: “I came into the world. Free by nature, in the image of God, I was nevertheless the prisoner of my own violence and my own selfishness, in the image of the world into which I was born. That world was the picture of Hell, full of men like myself, loving God, and yet hating him; born to love him, living instead in fear of hopeless self-contradictory hungers”. Merton was above all a man of prayer, a thinker who challenged the certitudes of his time and opened new horizons for souls and for the Church. He was also a man of dialogue, a promoter of peace between peoples and religions.
	From this perspective of dialogue, I would like to recognize the efforts made in recent months to help overcome historic differences linked to painful episodes of the past. It is my duty to build bridges and to help all men and women, in any way possible, to do the same. When countries which have been at odds resume the path of dialogue – a dialogue which may have been interrupted for the most legitimate of reasons – new opportunities open up for all. This has required, and requires, courage and daring, which is not the same as irresponsibility. A good political leader is one who, with the interests of all in mind, seizes the moment in a spirit of openness and pragmatism. A good political leader always opts to initiate processes rather than possessing spaces (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 222-223). Being at the service of dialogue and peace also means being truly determined to minimize and, in the long term, to end the many armed conflicts throughout our world. Here we have to ask ourselves: Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society? Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood. In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is our duty to confront the problem and to stop the arms trade. Three sons and a daughter of this land, four individuals and four dreams: Lincoln, liberty; Martin Luther King, liberty in plurality and non-exclusion; Dorothy Day, social justice and the rights of persons; and Thomas Merton, the capacity for dialogue and openness to God. Four representatives of the American people.  …. A nation can be considered great when it defends liberty as Lincoln did, when it fosters a culture which enables people to “dream” of full rights for all their brothers and sisters, as Martin Luther King sought to do; when it strives for justice and the cause of the oppressed, as Dorothy Day did by her tireless work, the fruit of a faith which becomes dialogue and sows peace in the contemplative style of Thomas Merton. In these remarks I have sought to present some of the richness of your cultural heritage, of the spirit of the American people. It is my desire that this spirit continue to develop and grow, so that as many young people as possible can inherit and dwell in a land which has inspired so many people to dream.
	For a full transcript of Pope Francis' address to Congress: Related Links: The Thomas Merton Collection at Bellarmine University The International Thomas Merton Society

Abbey of Gethsemani  

     http://www.monks.org/

   

Thomas Merton Why Pope Francis Cited

HISTORY POPE FRANCIS

Why Pope Francis Cited Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton

• Lily Rothman @lilyrothman

Sept. 24, 2015

    

NY Daily News / Getty ImagesDorothy Day inside the Worker office at 175 Christie St. in New York City in 1965.

The two Americans just got name-checked by the Pope

In speaking to Congress on Thursday, Pope Francis demonstrated that he’d brushed up on his American history in advance of his historic visit to the U.S. In mentioning a few famous Americans whose lives could serve as inspirations as the world navigates current crises, he turned to two obvious choices—Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King—and two whose names might be unfamiliar to those less versed in the history of American religion: Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton.

So who were they?

Dorothy Day was the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, who used her faith to work for social justice. In 1940, TIME noted that, “Among U. S. Christians who care for the poor, none are more blessed with selfless zeal than those Roman Catholics who labor in the Catholic Worker movement.”

When she died in 1980, TIME explained that her take on Catholic activism was anything but uncontroversial:

To admirers like Historian David J. O’Brien, writing in Commonweal, she was “the most significant, interesting and influential person in the history of American Catholicism.” If so, it is because her Catholic Worker movement blended zeal for reforming the whole social system with practical concern for helping the individual poor. She was arrested a dozen times, the first as a suffragette in 1917, the last during a workers’ demonstration in California in 1973, and took part in scores of labor and antimilitary protests.

Though she was raised Episcopalian and became an agnostic in her youth, as she “took a Marxist lover, joined the young labor movement and wrote for far-left newspapers like the Masses,” a relationship and the birth of her daughter led to the church. In the 1930s, in the depths of the Depression, she launched the periodical The Catholic Worker and a philosophy to go along with it: pro-union, anti-poverty, pacifist, anti-government. She even went so far as to refer to it as anarchism, believing that individuals could be empowered to do good on their own.

SEE PHOTOS OF POPE FRANCIS' HISTORIC VISIT TO U.S.

Andrew Burton—Reuters

Pope Francis arrives to lead mass at Madison Square Garden in New York City, on Sept.25, 2015.

1 of 42

Merton, who came from a similarly non-Catholic background, became a Trappist monk and best-selling author who encouraged peace. As his 1968 TIME obituary made clear, his focus was parallel to Day’s—he “found in the Word a command to do”—but it was through writing that he shared his philosophy with the world:        

For 20 years Merton had been the most publicly visible Christian contemplative since St. Simeon Stylites took refuge on top of a pillar. Merton’s pillar was print, and he had not exactly chosen it for himself. What he had chosen, at the age of 26 and as a new convert to Roman Catholicism, was the silent and anonymous life of the Trappist monks, who rise early, work hard, eat little and pray much. When he entered the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani in Kentucky, however, his abbot decreed that Merton should continue writing—as he had since the age of ten. Merton was ordained a priest in 1949, the year after his first major book, The Seven Storey Mountain, had become a bestseller and thrust him permanently into a life of books, articles, poems and a massive correspondence with friends all over the world.

When The Seven Storey Mountain was first published, TIME called it a “perceptive, quietly stirring” reminder that “the most mystical human beings are often among the most practical as well.”

While Day’s activism was very much tied to the 1930s moment in which she got her start, with its focus on workers and soup kitchens, Merton’s fit perfectly with the post-World War II world in which his autobiographical debut was published. Though Merton lived the life of a near-hermit for many years, he became fascinated by Zen Buddhism and Tibetan monastic practices right about when the Beatles did too, and he participated in protests against the Vietnam War.

Though their lives took very different paths, Day’s and Merton’s callings overlapped significantly, with a concentration on anti-poverty and pro-peace activism. In light of that parallel, one they share with another famous Catholic, it’s no wonder Pope Francis would have mentioned their names—even if they’re less famous than Lincoln and King.

Read Day’s full 1980 obituary, here in the TIME Vault: Street Saint

Read Merton’s full 1968 obituary, here in the TIME Vault:The Death of Two Extraordinary Christians

Sign up for and more view exa

Pope Francis at US Congress and mentions (5) from Fr. Thomas Merton

COMMENT:
Extensive Address by the Pope - copies ....
Most surprising is the limelight, in a sense, the excerpts on THOMAS MERTON, FR, LOUIS. ocso.

Pope Francis addresses a joint meeting of the US Congress in the House Chamber

Pope Francis makes historic address to US Congress

Thursday, September 24,.

Pope Francis on Thursday (24 September) made history by becoming the first Pope ever to address a joint session of the United States Congress. In his wide-ranging address that was frequently interrupted by applause, the Pope touched on many themes including the need for politics to serve the common good, the importance of cooperation and solidarity, the dangers of fundamentalism, the refugee crisis, abolition of the death penalty, the need for courageous acts to avert environmental deterioration, the evils of the arms trade and threats to the family from within and without. During his speech he also mentioned four great Americans from the past, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton, saying that each of them helped build a better future for the people of the US.

Pope Francis on Thursday (24 September) made history by becoming the first Pope ever to address a joint session of the United States Congress. In his wide-ranging address that was frequently interrupted by applause, the Pope touched on many themes including the need for politics to serve the common good, the importance of cooperation and solidarity, the dangers of fundamentalism, the refugee crisis, abolition of the death penalty, the need for courageous acts to avert environmental deterioration, the evils of the arms trade and threats to the family from within and without. During his speech he also mentioned four great Americans from the past, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton, saying that each of them helped build a better future for the people of the US. ..... The full text of Pope Francis' address to the Joint Session of the United States  Congress: Mr Vice-President, Mr Speaker, Honorable Members of Congress, Dear Friends, I am most grateful for your invitation to address this Joint Session of Congress in "the land of the free and the home of the brave". I would like to think that the reason for this is that I too am a son of this great continent, from which we have all received so much and toward which we share a common responsibility. I would like to mention four of these Americans: Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton. This year marks the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, the guardian of liberty, who labored tirelessly that "this nation, under God, [might] have a new birth of freedom". Building a future of freedom requires love of the common good and cooperation in a spirit of subsidiarity and solidarity........... A century ago, at the beginning of the Great War, which Pope Benedict XV termed a "pointless slaughter", another notable American was born: the Cistercian monk Thomas Merton. He remains a source of spiritual inspiration and a guide for many people. In his autobiography he wrote: "I came into the world. Free by nature, in the image of God, I was nevertheless the prisoner of my own violence and my own selfishness, in the image of the world into which I was born. That world was the picture of Hell, full of men like myself, loving God, and yet hating him; born to love him, living instead in fear of hopeless self-contradictory hungers". Merton was above all a man of prayer, a thinker who challenged the certitudes of his time and opened new horizons for souls and for the Church. He was also a man of dialogue, a promoter of peace between peoples and religions. .....From this perspective of dialogue, I would like to recognize the efforts made in recent months to help overcome historic differences linked to painful episodes of the past. It is my duty to build bridges and to help all men and women, in any way possible, to do the same. When countries which have been at odds resume the path of dialogue - a dialogue which may have been interrupted for the most legitimate of reasons - new opportunities open up for all. This has required, and requires, courage and daring, which is not the same as irresponsibility. A good political leader is one who, with the interests of all in mind, seizes the moment in a spirit of openness and pragmatism. A good political leader always opts to initiate processes rather than possessing spaces (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 222-223). ........ Being at the service of dialogue and peace also means being truly determined to minimize and, in the long term, to end the many armed conflicts throughout our world. Here we have to ask ourselves: Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society? Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood. In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is our duty to confront the problem and to stop the arms trade. Three sons and a daughter of this land, four individuals and four dreams: Lincoln, liberty; Martin Luther King, liberty in plurality and non-exclusion; Dorothy Day, social justice and the rights of persons; and Thomas Merton, the capacity for dialogue and openness to God. Four representatives of the American people. ........I will end my visit to your country in Philadelphia, where I will take part in the World Meeting of Families. It is my wish that throughout my visit the family should be a recurrent theme. How essential the family has been to the building of this country! And how worthy it remains of our support and encouragement! Yet I cannot hide my concern for the family, which is threatened, perhaps as never before, from within and without. Fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family. I can only reiterate the importance and, above all, the richness and the beauty of family life. ...... In particular, I would like to call attention to those family members who are the most vulnerable, the young. For many of them, a future filled with countless possibilities beckons, yet so many others seem disoriented and aimless, trapped in a hopeless maze of violence, abuse and despair. Their problems are our problems. We cannot avoid them. We need to face them together, to talk about them and to seek effective solutions rather than getting bogged down in discussions. At the risk of oversimplifying, we might say that we live in a culture which pressures young people not to start a family, because they lack possibilities for the future. Yet this same culture presents others with so many options that they too are dissuaded from starting a family. A nation can be considered great when it defends liberty as Lincoln did, when it fosters a culture which enables people to "dream" of full rights for all their brothers and sisters, as Martin Luther King sought to do; when it strives for justice and the cause of the oppressed, as Dorothy Day did by her tireless work, the fruit of a faith which becomes dialogue and sows peace in the contemplative style of Thomas Merton.   In these remarks I have sought to present some of the richness of your cultural heritage, of the spirit of the American people. It is my desire that this spirit continue to develop and grow, so that as many young people as possible can inherit and dwell in a land which has inspired so many people to dream. God bless America!

1 Cor.The Folly of the Cross - true wisdom and false

Thomas Merton. "A Christian looks at Zen"   

 The Abbey of Gethsemani 1968

 Thomas Merton and a trinity of his novices (1960)
L. to R. Bro. Denis, Bro. Cuthbert, Thomas Merton, other novice.

FIFTH WEEK IN ORDIANRY TIME
Monday, February 7
MARK 6:53-56. The Reception at Gennaseret
(Genesis 1:1-19; Psalm 104)
KEY VERSE: "They laid their sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak" (v 56).

Night Office Reading

A Reading from Thomas Merton is a joy to read from the Lectern, and to listen to.

1.    The flow of the English language.

2.    His grasp of Paul’ Writing.

3.    He resounds the power of Paul on the word of the Cross

4.    His having that same the word of the Cross.

5.    The reality of the word of the Cross realized the life

From A Christian Looks at Zen by Thomas Merton

In the first two chapters of the First Epistle to the Corinthians Saint Paul distinguishes between two kinds of wisdom: one which consists in the knowledge of words and statements, a rational, dialectical wisdom, and another which is at once a matter of paradox and of experience, and goes beyond the reach of reason. 

To attain to this spiritual wisdom, one must first be liberated from servile dependence on the wisdom of speech. This liberation is effected by the word of the cross which makes no sense to those who cling to their own familiar views and habits of thought and is a means by which God destroys the wisdom of the wise. The word of the cross is in fact completely baffling and disconcerting both to the Greeks with their philosophy and to the Jews with their well interpreted law. But when one has been freed from dependence on verbal formulas and conceptual structures, the cross becomes a source of power. This power emanates from the foolishness of God and it also makes use of foolish instruments (the apostles). On the other hand, he who can accept this paradoxical "foolishness" experiences in himself a secret and mysterious power, which is the power of Christ living in him as the ground of a totally new life and a new being.  

Here it is essential to remember that for a Christian the word of the cross is nothing theoretical, but a stark and existential experience of union with Christ in his death in order to share in his resurrection. To fully "hear" and "receive" the word of the cross means much more than simple assent to the dogmatic proposition that Christ died for our sins. It means to be nailed to the cross with Christ, so that the ego-self is no longer the principle of our deepest actions, which now proceed from Christ living in us. I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me. To receive the word of the cross means the acceptance of a complete self-emptying, a "kenosis," in union with the self-emptying of Christ obedient unto death. It is essential to true Christianity that this experience of the cross and of self-emptying should be central in the life of the Christian so that he or she may fully receive the Holy Spirit and know (again by experience) all the riches of God in and through Christ.   

Responsory         1 Cor 1:18; Gal 6:14

The message of the cross is folly to those 'on the way to ruin, but

+ to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

v. Far be it from me to boast of anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. + To us who ...

Thomas Merton Entering the Silence

"Seeing your own thought objectified in the mirror of another makes you return with greater profit to your own mirror" [Merton p352]. Dear, William, You have just opened to me a window to the seven volumes of the Thomas Merton Journals. Sparking and sizzling wires come alive at a touch in Mertons writing. I am ashamed like the bus man on holiday, or the monk in solitude, the seven volumes of the Journals of Merton are opened for this first time – and thrilled at the discovered, or rather thanks to your uncovering the rich seem of gold. The secret of Merton is to open the associations and links to everything. As expressed in the quote above. As in the discussion about Luke 6:5 we feel the unwinding power of some simple word of Scripture. “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath” words unfold to “Son of Man” / “Lord” / “Sabbath” into open our thought “objectified in the mirror of another in great profit in our own mirror. Seeing the Christological powerful light reflecting in our darkness. For the moment the magic of Merton oils the grinding wheels. Below, the content from the boot dust jacked of “Entering the Silence” of Merton, serves to prime me into the amazing Mertonia. Yours ... Donald ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: William J ….> To: Donald ….> Sent: Mon, 6 September, 2010 9:44:57 Subject: Sabbath - "the interior life of God" Dear Father Donald, I was struck by an amazing perspective in Thomas Merton's 2nd journal, "Entering the Silence", p 354, written by him as he contemplated St. John's Gospel, chapter 5:43, "What is implied by the expression "in the name of my Father?" Jesus came to us having nothing of His own. Not merely did He have nowhere to rest His head, not only was He poor on earth, but He explains that the very fact of His divine generation means that He has absolutely nothing of Himself and yet He is everything. In this same chapter Jesus defended Himself against the charge of violating the Sabbath by explaining that He lived in the very heart of the Sabbath, which is the interior life of God, where "The Father works and I work [5:17]" and that "the Son cannot do anything of Himself, but what He seeth the Father doing [5:19]."" ___________________________________________________ PS. There is a marvellous entry in the journal on the meaning of Scripture [p 349]: "Merely to set down some of the communicable meanings that can be found in a passage of Scripture is not to exhaust the true meaning or value of that passage. Every word that comes from the mouth of God is nourishment that feeds the soul with eternal life. Everywhere there are doors and windows opened into the same eternity, and the most powerful communication of Scripture is the engrafted word, the secret and inexpressible seed of contemplation planted in the depths of our soul and awakening it with an immediate and inexpressible contact with the Living Word, that we may adore Him in Spirit and in Truth."  ___________________________________________________ PPS. One comment from the journal tells me why TM's intimate writings are so attractive.... "Seeing your own thought objectified in the mirror of another makes you return with greater profit to your own mirror" [p352]. One Sabbath day's journey, ….  in Our Lord, William - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The Journals of Thomas Merton / Volume 2: 1941-1952 / Patrick Hart O.C.S.O. General Editor. Entering the Silence. Becoming a Monk and Writer. Edited by Jonathan Montaldo. “Let me keep silence in this world, except in so far as God wills and in the way He wills it. Let me at least disappears into the writing I do. It should mean nothing special to me, not harm my recollection. The work could be a prayer; its results should not concern me.” (December 14, 1946). During his arduous days and nights in the silence of the monastery, the young Thomas Merton simultaneously advanced to priesthood and emerged as a surprising bestselling author when his spiritual autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, was published in 1948. Spanning the journal entries in an eleven year period from December 12, 1941, to July 5, 1952, Entering the Silence unfolds Merton's budding literary career and the development of his spiritual ideas in a uniquely personal literary style that would propel his writings into the mainstream. As the demands of his literary success rose, so did the tensions between remaining an observant monk and a talented, prolific writer. Faithful to both of these passions, Merton struggled with the requirements of daily monastic life while he continued to grace the world with his fresh observations and profound insights. This second volume in the Merton journals includes passionate descriptions of monastic life silence, chanting, farm work, the community of monks-and touchingly exhibits the young priest's edication to writing. "At work—writing--I am doing a little better. I mean, I am less tied up in it, more peaceful and detached. Taking one thing at a time and going over it slowly and patiently and forgetting the other jobs that have to take their turn." As Merton's talent as a writer blossomed, he eloquently reconciled his spiritual life with his writing life, drawing deep connections between the two. Long-awaited and endlessly fascinating, Merton's journals offer, as Henri Nouwen has noted, "a unique insight into the mind and heart of the most important spiritual writer of the twentieth century." THOMAS MERTON (1915-1968) was a Trappist monk, spiritual master, writer, and peace activist. His spiritual classics include New Seeds of Contemplation, The Sign of Jonas, Mystics and Zen Masters, and The Seven Storey Mountain. JONATHAN MONTALDO writes and lectures extensively on Thomas Merton and is an adviser to the Merton Seasonal Review. Religion / Spirituality "The trick is always to find the spiritual deeply embedded in this world, and to discover our own eternal dimensions in the midst of our foibles, failures, and sometimes neurotic idiosyncrasies. We have no better guide in these things than Merton, and you couldn't ask for a more lively writer.” Thomas Moore June 19, 1947 I think God does not want me to write any more the way I have written before--taking an idea and working it out in cold blood .... If God gives me something directly and spontaneously about Himself, I will write it. Otherwise I will keep quiet. That means no more volumes of poetry for a long time perhaps, and it may mean little or no variety, and it might mean complete silence. However, I see nothing for me to write that is not simply a song about His Love and about contemplation. Everything else bores and fatigues me and dries me up. I’ll write what God gives me, not as a writer, but as a lover of God and for Him alone. Then, if He wants it printed, He can take it and print it. --from Entering the Silence Book Cover. Harper Collins 1995