Thomas Merton

“For me to be a saint means to be myself. Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem of finding out who I am and of discovering my true self.”
He was a poet, a mystic, a monk, an artist, a peace activist, a priest, a spiritual master, en ecumenist, a Zen practicener, and a saint.
The childhood and adolescence described in The seven storey Mountain were lonely and aimless. He suffered separation from his only brother, missed his parents deeply, and behaved in ways that disgusted him – drinking, smoking, partying, and always showing off.
Excerpt from No man is an island “Why do we have to spend our lives striving to be something that we would never want to be, if we only knew what we wanted? Why do we waste our time doing things which, if we only stopped to think about them, are just the opposite of what we were made for?
We cannot be ourselves unless we know ourselves. But self-knowledge is impossible when thoughtless and automatic activity keeps our souls in confusion. But we have to cut down our activity to the point where we can think calmly and reasonably about our actions. We cannot begin to know ourselves until we can see the real reasons why we do the things we do, and we cannot be ourselves until our actions correspond to our intentions, and our intentions are appropriate to our own situation. But that is enough. It is not necessary that we succeed in everything. A man can be perfect and still reap no fruit from his work, and it may happen that a man who is able to accomplish very little is much more of a person than another who seems to accomplish very much.
Merton stepped into the halls of the monastery it was clear where he had arrived “I felt the deep, deep silence of the night, and of peace, and of holiness enfold me like love, like safety. The embrace of it, the silence! I had entered into a solitude that was an impregnable fortress. And the silence that enfolded me, spoke to me, and louder and more eloquently than any voice, and in the middle of the quiet, clean smelling room, with the moon pouring its peacefulness in through the open window with the warm night air, I realized truly whose house that was, o glorious Mother of God.”
Thoughts in solitude, Merton’s prayer, “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 the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope that I have the desire in all that I am doing I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.