Comments on: Thomas Merton

By: Alouette Ch

Alouette Ch — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:13:50 +0000

quel Personnage important ans vieillesse; j’avais commencé à lire un de ses livres et j’en suis encore à refléchir à ces quelques pages ; c’est un penseur et un Moine hors du commun . Je l’ai découvert très tard mais quelle récompense et que chemin vers Dieu!
Merci de nous donner à découvrir de telles personnalités qui mettent Dieu à sa Vraie place
Alouette

By: Walter Bonam

Walter Bonam — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:29:44 +0000

Over thirty years ago, through my encounters with his books “The Seven-Storey Mountain” and then “New Seeds of Contemplation,” Thomas Merton was the “lasso” that God used to bring me back into the active practice of the Catholic faith into which I’d been baptized as an infant twenty-four years earlier, and from which I had drifted during my just-completed college years. In the years since, it seems that whenever my spiritual life is flagging, reading something by Merton and/or visiting a Trappist monastery helps to revive it. That initial exposure to Merton helped propel me into six years in a Catholic seminary, and although I ultimately got married rather than ordained, in my life today as a full-time employee of the Church at the diocesan level he remains a touchstone for my efforts in the realm of social justice and in my attempt to live contemplatively in the midst of a noisy world. Your piece on him was very good, although I echo the sentiments of the respondent who noted that it might’ve been more appropriate to focus on his “4th & Walnut epiphany” rather than putting so much emphasis on his romantic interlude with the student nurse as a turning point.

By: Michael Scott

Michael Scott — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:39:25 +0000

Thank-you for this work. For me it encourages me to see how a stronger bond to God is possible or maybe it’s simply the realization it has always been present and now I am awakening to it.

By: Gene Clough

Gene Clough — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:51:57 +0000

What a little jewel this essay on Merton is. Judy Valente and Morgan Atkinson have responded well to the challenge of presenting Thomas Merton to the world. I am sure those who know Merton, indeed Merton himself, take immense satisfaction in viewing this film. If I were to offer a criticism, a constructive criticsm, I would ask if it would not have been worthwhile to highlight the epiphany at 4th Avenue and Walnut Street, downtown Louisville, Ky., as the turning point in Merton’s spiritual life — and not, perhaps, as much his relationship with the Louisville nursing student. The real joy, the profound joy, is to read Merton, to learn of his spiritual journey and to adopt and adapt his understanding to our own lives. The real Merton can only be alluded to in this wonderful, little cinematic biop. Merton, the beautiful spiritualist and teacher, is to be discovered in his books and essays where his prophetic life and learning can be savored and incorporated into one’s own life journey as the great gift and spiriual treasure that it is.

By: Stephen Murray, M.D.

Stephen Murray, M.D. — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:23:53 +0000

27 years ago, when I was R.C., I never, ever had heard the clergy (or the sisters) even speak the name of Fr. Thomas Merton, and of course this was years post-Vatican-II: I was 31. But miraculously, I discovered his book, “The Seven Story Mountain.” Rather than lead me into the new, post-Vatican II protestantised roman catholic heretical thing it had become, I carefully dissected between the lines in this superb book. I was lead to Eastern Orthodoxy, this despite the Fr. Merton’s hidden agenda promoting post-Vatican II’s egregious and appalling twisted Liturgy, theology, and rubrics which bordered upon “liberation theology.” Thank you, Fr. Merton, and You, the Holy Spirit for leading me to the true, unchanged and unchangeable ancient true church, The Eastern Orthodox Church. Perhaps the Holy Spirit was, unbeknownst to Fr. Merton, his wise and All-Holy editor/proof-reader. Kyrie eleison, Gospodi pomiluji. And to the all-glorious, ever Virgin Mary, Theotokos, who decidely played a role in my salvation. She reigns higher then the Seraphin and more glorious than the Cherubim: “true Theotokos, we magnify thee.”

Stephen T. Murray, M.D., DABFM, FAAFP

By: Frank Burgmeier

Frank Burgmeier — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:41:48 +0000

Merton, if he had lived today would have been the poster boy for eliminating celibacy from the priesthood. He was a foreward thinker, whose insights would be consider revolutionary by the fundamentalists of our present day.

He constantly lived Christ’s words: “That the Kingdom of God Lies Within”. Jesus never referred us to any book or other authority.

Merton expresses this beautifully along with our need for others and a close relationship with nature.

Frank B.

By: Robert Keen

Robert Keen — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:25:25 +0000

As for so many others, Merton has been and remains an inspiration;one of the those leading me from business management into academic life at Cambridge to research and write on issues of social justice – most notably on the role of the virtues in modern leadership – from the perspective of Catholic social teaching

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:45:33 +0000

Beautiful encapsulation of this profound man– he was a living example of the struggle we all go through when we are honest with ourselves.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:07:37 +0000

Shouldn’t you point out that this is a rebroadcast? Still, high quality work.

By: Luciano P. Galman

Luciano P. Galman — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 04:21:02 +0000

Your manner of presentation on Merton boosts my quest for deeply human issues being addressed by this authentic human being whose universal appeal is yet to be seen.