Silence & Contemplation (PM) | Merton in His Own Words (2013) 

I’m crying listening to Merton. This is very freeing and releasing. I needed to hear this. Been seeking God and answers.

Thank you for posting this. I’ve read almost every writing Merton put out, but Ive never heard his voice.

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.”

“Prayer is as natural an expression of faith as breathing is to life.” - Jonathan Edwards

I've been reading Merton's works for over 20 years. So powerful and humbling to hear him speak it.

Merton got it. "Prayer is as simple as breathing" 🙏...

Timestamps: 00:55 Prayer should be as simple as breathing 03:05 We belong to God. He is our father. 04:20 The curse of prayer is when it becomes a role 06:10 Prayer is a vocation 06:50 Sadly, prayer can become a time of self-evaluation 07:20 Prayer shouldn’t focus on ourselves. It’s about acceptance. 08:20 Prayer should be about finding one’s heart (monastic tradition) 11:40 How commentaries can discourage our study of Psalms 12:35 Delight in reciting and meditating on the Psalms 13:05 Do ordinary things in love and your knowledge of God increases 14:05 Sufism: Love God and do things with love will bring divine knowledge 15:30 Hesychasm & continuous prayer 16:10 Awakening your heart is the study of the monk 16:40 It’s by love that we know God 17:10 Cultivate a patient, humble spirit 17:45 Carmelite nuns focusing on continuous prayer 18:29 Continuous prayer means cultivating an awareness of love 19:42 The simplest way to be aware of love of God 22:50 The solitary and monastic life is about putting away all care 24:31 The monastic life accepts death and renunciation of care 25:10 Goal of going to solitude is to cast your cares on God 26:18 It’s easy to fill your life with care even when in solitude 27:55 Abandon your cares to God. God is taking care of everything. 29:10 We are here to love others. 31:50 World is opaque because of care. 37:17 Every person encounters God. 38:20 Prayer is an emergence into infinite freedom 40:37 The great problem of prayer (fixed in our ego) 44:36 Theology of the cross 45:20 Theology of prayer 47:25 Christ as mediator in prayer 47:50 Progress in prayer 49:10 How Job cries out to God vs Adam 51:30 Christ teaches us prayer (Gospel of Luke) 54:00 When prayer become real 55:01 The heart of prayer 56:00 The presence of Christ is always with us

I can't stop listening to Thomas Merton. God speaks through him even from beyond his grave.

I love this explanation. It confirms my understanding that we need to surrender in prayer with our heart wide open to receive the wisdom of Christ within it. We have this battle within, the false ego construct vs the true identity which is closes to our child self before the ego was formed. If we can calm the monkey mind long enough in prayer/meditation we can hear that inner voice guiding us. Ask, seek and find. The door will be opened.

'I' is the False Entity which recognises with the body, flesh, bones, mind and it's never ending thoughts But 'I AM' is the ever-present, Eternal your SELF

I've loved this guy for fifty years.

I hold dear in my heart the time which I have spent in silent contemplation at the Abbey Gethsemani in KY. Reading Marton and praying to release myself from control on the hill of the cross that overlooks the abbey. Also the cheese was amazing.

I have been reading collections of his letters and lectures after reading Seven Story Mountain, and especially after visiting Gethsemane it is wonderful to hear his voice.

Thanking you dearest future saint Thomas M. I love you.

He mentions Angela of Foligno, a 13th c. mystic, at 50:10. He says "You can't talk about the mystics in the west anymore," and they laugh because it was true. Merton would be very happy to know that she was canonized in 2013. But I do find that mysticism such as Merton's is so direct and plugs me into God like no other prayer. He says just following, "I did not love you for fun." Statements like this are so powerful and cut through layer upon layer of spiritual fog. I am hoping to become a Catholic, and I hope that there is room for me to embrace this kind of mysticism within the faith. I would love if someone would comment.

Prayer is an exercise of total honesty towards oneself in finding that which is praying in relation to God, one of wakefulness, of vigilant observance of the mind's tendency to roam about, finding 'important' things to deal with when you sit down to prayer.

Thomas Merton helps me understand God in my daily living!

I love the picture of Father Merton talking to D.T. Suzuki! Wonderful!

4:22 I love seeing this image of Merton with Suzuki Roshi, it's so important to have respect and friendship between religions.

Thanks be to God for this wonderful and God-given opportunity. May the Spirit of Prayer and Contemplation pervade our noisy and cluttered Society. The World needs to pray and must pray. This is the most important thing in the world right now! We cannot live without God! Prayer is the way to develop a sustainable and joyful life and this is only possible if we love God!!! Praying, True Prayer is loving God! Thank you and may God bless us and the troubled world we are in now! Divine Mercy; Our Lord Jesus Christ, we must trust completely!!!

God is the creator of all things And He is caretaker of all things

The moments Merton speaks of the mundane problems of care in monastic life using humor and hearing the students laugh with him are so precious. Awesome basic humanity between teacher n’ novices. I hope those young men went on to live noble lives.

One who knows the true meaning of 'I' and 'I am' within themselves are the ones who are closer to GOD

This may have one of Thomas Merton’s talks at the Sisters of Loretto mother house down the road from the Trappist monastery. His visits were eagerly awaited there and his words stayed with the nuns for life.

Love this, including the big pauses that allow for (I take it) contemplation of the previous lecture. I also love the nature sounds in some of these recordings (the insects, etc) and Mertin’s pronunciation of “ego” as Eggo, like the store-bought waffles 😊

An exceptional person. Love Thomas Merton 🙏🏻🕊️

Our heart is where we meet the Bridegroom, where the Wedding banquet is and where we learn to love loving...not for what we get but what we give...💗🙏💗🙏💗🙏💗🙏💗🙏💗🙏

An exceptional and complex person that I love so much. Thomas Merton is definitely my role model. God bless 🙏🏻🕊️🙏🏻 19:25

Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Brilliant, passionate, astounding. I feel at once solaced by the simplicity of prayer and called to the work of infinite creative freedom.

Having a dialogue with Merton, I really like this guy. Thanks.

Finding this came at the exact right time. So pleased you posted this- thank you.

Thank you so much - I lost the only recording I ever had in a move and this one is so beautifully presented - wonderful!

he really really nails it; this little light of mine, i gonna let it shine; this little light of mine; i gonna let it shine; merton was a mountaineer in solitude and silence, breathing it in and out in the great footsteps of iesua

The Postmaster is within you who delivers the Little YOU 'I' to the Extraordinary YOUR SELF 'I AM'

Have an awakened heart. It's with our heart that we love and we must cultivate the awareness of Love. This is how we know God.

One of the few true inspirations in a much prescribed environment. Mertons prose is illuminating and life changing ... eastern and western ideals colliding into a distilled beauty x

O, O My, I love this its to much to take in, but love this I am glad I found this, its so hard to find someone who can help me and lead me in spiritual direction but now sooooo bless to find this. Father Merton pray 🙏 for me.

Gloria in Excelsis Deo! 🙏

This is priceless, so helpful. Thank you ❤️

The clarity is an inspiration for Humanity! And ultimately, 'quietly by yourself' see how it applies deeply to you... if that Grace comes along-- Grounded in Love for God.

WONDERFUL! Thanks so much!

thank you so much for sharing such profound wisdom

Brilliant. Thank you.

I would have done pretty much anything to meet and speak with this incredible man! He understood, truly! Fr Richard Rohr speaks so highly of Thomas Merton.. he brought me to him 🙏❤✨

An awakened heart!

The humour of the man shines through

One who dwells to know the true meaning of 'I' and 'I AM' within themselves are the Ones who will be closer to GOD

This pure gold

In one of our most perilous times in the history of the world, he wrote many letters to different influential people concerning world peace. One pivotal letter was to Jack Kennedys mother Rose about the horror of nuclear war. A Cold Warriors heart turning back from the Brink in 1962 and moving towards Real Peace with our most dangerous adversary culminating in the "Peace Speech" at the American University.

praying is like breathing : Merton's Wisdom

25:31 surrendering totally to God . Self abandonment is that continual forgetfulness of self, which leaves the soul free to eternally love God, untroubled by those fears, reflections, regrets and anxieties which the care of ones own perfection and salvation gives.

"The rabbittness of God is shinning through all these rabbits"

I've long held Merton in high esteem. Thank you Thomas.

Beautiful and freeing.

Doing things with LOVE.

A great spiritual teacher.

Thanks David, blessings dear ones, love seeing you on Zoom , miss you and pray for your well being

God was never an adjective or noun - but a verb. Peace ✌️ n’ luv

Thankyou ❤

Awakening the I AM NESS in the spiritual heart is the study of the monk This is the meaning of Thomas Merton's 16:10

More of this please !!!! Somehow !!!

"we should not divide prayer from the rest of our life"

Merton really moved me.

To most people, prayer means you must pray TO someone and pray FOR something. And by "god" people think it's a dude in the sky! It's difficult even to use these terms.

Gee, it’s a good thing there are six commercials interrupting this content. I’d hate to think God wasn’t making enough money through RU-vid’s ad revenue structure. #bless

Love his simple insights~ profound 💖 wow! “We want live in awareness...” living in ongoing conversation with my Great Mystery God has been my prayer style for many years. I do make an attempt to connect morning~ mid day and night but then I find myself just chatting at times of joy or trouble.

Leviticus 19:31 'Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.' Matthew 22:32 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.'

Thank you so much for putting together and uploading this inspiring video. I was checking to see if I could add Spanish subtitles to it but I see that you don't have the option to allow community contributions enabled, so I can't do it. If you're interested in having those subtitles I would be glad to add them as a community contribution (=for free). This way I could share it with my prayer group here in Spain. Thanks again! ♥

27:54 Since God offers to take upon himself the care of our affairs, let us once for all abandon them to his infinite wisdom, that we may never more be occupied with ought but him and his interest.

“Abandon ourselves to Him.”

Love only Love is His Word

Grateful

He doesn't mind using examples from other religions because he doesn't need to prove his own faith to others,

Merton didn't want to talk about prayer since this would reduce prayer into a cause or issue to fight for. However, this video on prayer by the same took 59 minutes. 🙏😏

I like his idea about reaching God through your heart rather than your intellect (around 16:00). Although, I think it's good to use your intellect but we need to go beyond it at some point I think. If we don't use our intellect we can reach God but aren't capable of working out his will or really understand what our encounter with him means. We can end up being fundamentalists.

This is the issue I find with my catholic mass. It all seems like vain repetition and doing it so everyone can see like the hypocrites do. I do struggle with the standing up sitting down bowing saying the same prayers. Now even breast beating saying the ‘I confess’ it’s all pointless posturing. Merton’s view of prayer is so comforting

Wise words ❤

We should divide ads from God's word

Interesting. To me, it sounds like he spoke with a plain non-regional American accent. I wouldn't have expected that in someone who was born and raised in France, educated in England, spent a few years in New York, and lived most of his life in Kentucky. I would have thought we would hear some international and/or regional flavor in his voice.

Prayer and the secure common sense soul are related. AS an atheist I know this.

The Christian Alan watts lol. Thanks Thomas. God bless and Amituofo!

Visited the Abby a few ago .. didn’t want to leave

IF you have Jesus Christ, then God is in you.

Unfortunately every time Merton begins to get into the depth of his topic the recording moves on to another selection.

It would be helpful to have the titles of the talks in the video credits. They are NOT there. The TMerton Ctr at Bellarmine sells each talk with its cataloged title...

I definitely prefer his writings as opposed to his formal and somewhat stilted lecture style. I suppose that was the rhetorical style of the times but I found it difficult to access.

There's been a lot of opaque packages that have had to be unwrapped and not all of them were delightful presents. The prayer of the heart was let out of the prisons of forms without destroying the forms themselves. The scaffold of prayer forms remain but are not it's beginning and end in the eternal presence . Ie we are not confining God to forms nor could we ever because of his interpenetrability.

can someone tell me what is the song in the beginning or who sings it ? it touches my heart

How can l buy and order the audio tape? You say how great the tape is but l can't find out how to get it. I will continue to search this add to find out how to order Merton's tape but this is extremely poor organization on your part!

The subtitles are often quite wrong. I don't know how that could be changed (so much for AI?)

Merton interspersed with Planned Parenthood commercials, how bizarre.

Helpful

God is ever present and ever listening. We just do not understand this very high availability

I do have to practice virtue consciously though, because if I don’t I will unconsciously go back to self seeking

Does anyone know where he gets the Caussade quotes?, I’ve read Abandonment to Divine Providence but can’t seem to find them

Wondering what specific title these talks came from? Would like to purchase

Please help me identifying the individual Merton mentions at 30:04, who is he? Casado/ Casados? Thank you for your help.

I have read many books by merton, have been to gethsemane., the catholic church as a whole, is not open to this type of inclusion.

Anywhere I can find a longer version of the intro song?