Bridges to Contemplative Living with
Thomas Merton – A Study Group
This Study group is intended to heighten spiritual awareness in daily living. We will use a series of
study guides published by the Thomas Merton Institute of Contemplative Living as the springboard for
contemplative dialog on the works of Thomas Merton and others from various faith traditions. The
readings and questions in the study guides will provide conversation starters for faith-sharing and
exploration of contemplative living as witnessing to the sacredness in ordinary life.
Thomas Merton is one of the most influential American spiritual writers of the twentieth century. His
autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, has sold over one million copies and has been translated
into twenty-eight languages. Merton wrote over seventy other books and hundreds of poems and
articles on topics ranging from monastic spirituality to civil rights, nonviolence, and the nuclear arms
race.
On December 10, 1941, he entered the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, a community of monks
belonging to the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (Trappists); one of the strictest Roman
Catholic monastic orders. The twenty-seven years he spent in Gethsemani prior to his death in 1968
stimulated profound changes in his self-understanding. During his last years, he became deeply
interested in Asian religions, particularly Zen Buddhism, and in promoting East-West dialogue. After
several meetings with Merton during the American monk's trip to the Far East in 1968, the Dalai Lama
praised him as having a more profound understanding of Buddhism than any other Christian he had
known.
Our study will be guided by the spirit of Merton’s thoughts:
In order to find God in ourselves, we must stop looking at ourselves, stop checking and verifying
ourselves in the mirror of our own futility, and be content to be in Him and to do whatever He
wills, according to our limitations, judging our acts not in the light of our own illusions, but in the
light of His reality which is all around us in the things and people we live with.
The group will be meeting the 4th Thursday of each month beginning in April and welcomes
members of various faith traditions. Donations to the Spiritual Life Center will be accepted.