Thomas Merton Abandonment Prayer
Link to recording of this talk:
https://www.facebook.com/110012554072429/videos/433933041105681
“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see
the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I
really know myself, and that I think I am following your will does not mean I
am actually doing so.
But I believe the desire to please you does in fact please
you. And I hope I have that desire in all I am doing. I hope I will never do
anything apart from that desire. And I know if I do this you will lead me by
the right road though I may know nothing about it. I will trust you always
though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for
you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”
“Until one is committed there is hesitancy, the chance to
draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative or
creation, there is one elementary truth...that the moment one definitely
commits oneself, then Providence moves, too. All sorts of things occur to help
one that would otherwise never have occurred. A whole stream of events issues
from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of incidents and meetings
and material assistance which no man would have believed would have come his
way.
Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin
it. Action has magic, grace, and power in it.”
W.H. Murray The Scottish Himalayan Expedition.
This poem was inspirational to me in the early days when
there was so much confusion and darkness. Sometimes all we must do is begin,
and then begin again, and again, and again. We are supported by forces seen and
unseen far more than we realize.
Here are some videos on Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton - A Teaching on Realisation/Awakening -
Christian Mystics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHmCwiMvhsw
This YouTube video is a series of quotations from Thomas
Merton read by Buddhist nun Samaneri Jayasara. She has a YouTube channel of her
reading the writings deeply realized beings, which you can access here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz6X8QK9_JG49hJxnzAu-1w.
All of the videos of Samameri I have heard are wonderful.
From her introduction to the video: “This is a brilliant and profound teaching
from Thomas Merton on Awakening. It is an extract from his book "Seeds of
Contemplation" (chapter on Pure Love). Thomas Merton (January 31, 1915 – December
10, 1968) was an American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, mystic, poet,
social activist, and scholar of comparative religion. On May 26, 1949, he was
ordained to the priesthood and given the name "Father Louis". Merton
wrote more than 50 books in a period of 27 years, mostly on spirituality,
social justice and a quiet pacifism, as well as scores of essays and reviews.”
Here is a link to a series of videos on Thomas Merton and
other Christian mystics, including Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint John of the
Cross, and Meister Eckhart, among others.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWzYrEdlV4O4JO70WfrF7hc_WPVAqDcdj.
Here are links to several Merton audio recordings:
“You can’t make God come to you, but he will come if your
heart is awakened.”
16:57
“This is what you do when you want to know God: You don’t go looking for an
object called God. You cultivate the awareness of love in a awake heart.”
2013 Merton in His Own Voice – Audio recordings of
Thomas Merton teaching the novices at Gethsemani; a talk he delivered in the
1960s. Images provided by The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University and
Merton Legacy Trust.
Contemplation: Merton in his Own Words
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr3V-BnENmA
“Merton was perhaps most interested in—and, of all of the
Eastern traditions, wrote the most about—Zen. Having studied
the Desert Fathers and other Christian mystics as
part of his monastic vocation, Merton had a deep understanding of what it was
those men sought and experienced in their seeking. He found many parallels
between the language of these Christian mystics and the language of Zen
philosophy.
In 1959, Merton began
a dialogue with D. T. Suzuki which was published in
Merton's Zen and the Birds of Appetite as "Wisdom in
Emptiness". This dialogue began with the completion of Merton's The
Wisdom of the Desert. Merton sent a copy to Suzuki with the hope that he
would comment on Merton's view that the Desert Fathers and the early Zen
masters had similar experiences. Nearly ten years later, when Zen and
the Birds of Appetite was published, Merton wrote in his postface that
"any attempt to handle Zen in theological language is bound to miss the
point", calling his final statements "an example of how not to
approach Zen."[47] Merton
struggled to reconcile the Western and Christian impulse to catalog and put
into words every experience with the ideas of Christian apophatic theology and the unspeakable
nature of the Zen experience.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Merton
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