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This is a file in the correspondence of Thomas Merton under the heading: "Carriker, Bruce L.".
Bruce L. Carriker writes from Prescott College in Arizona.
Please click here for general restrictions concerning Merton's correspondence.
See one published letter from Merton to Carriker in Witness to Freedom, pp. 241-242.
If the person in correspondence with Merton has full text records in the Merton Center Digital Collections, there will be a numeric link to them below.
This Record Sub-Group is not divided into Series and is arranged chronologically.
Click icons for links: ✓="Published | Library Record", ✉="Scanned" | 🗷="Scanned, Viewable Only at Merton Center"
| # | Date | From/To | First Lines | Pub ✓ | Notes |
| | y/m/d | Merton | | Scan ✉ | |
| 1. |
1968/04/22 |
TLS to Merton |
I am the one that wrote you a letter informing you of my background; I stated that I was called to |
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stating call to contemplative life / Fr. Richard W. Kropf / asking to see Merton / Seeds of Contemplation - "I could have written much of it."
«detailed view» |
| 2. |
1968/04/24 |
TLS to Merton |
I'm happy here in this home--Prescott College, And the only reason I could see for leaving Would be |
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[written in loose verse form] asking Merton to teach him at Gethsemani
«detailed view» |
| 3. |
1968/04/28 |
TL[c] from Merton |
You have put me in a difficult spot. I must try to say what I am going to say, put it clearly, |
✓ |
Merton not novice master and does not handle vocations and is "definitely out of the Guru business" / states he must go through the proper channels to enter Gethsemani or try a monastery out west / asks Carriker to be a "disciple of Christ, not any man" [...] "don't build on a mudpile like me!"
«detailed view» |
| 4. |
1968/04/30 |
TLS to Merton |
I write to you because I think you may help me. Sometimes inside me beats a desire for a solitude |
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not a Catholic yet, but wants to be a hermit at Gethsemani / thinks only Merton could judge his character
«detailed view» |
| 5. |
1968/05/01 |
TLS to Merton |
I write this as a courtesy letter. I expect you were testing me in your letter of April 28, for you |
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sees Gethsemani as his best option for life as hermit - "afforded you [Merton] the opportunity of maturing from your 1949 ignorance to your 1968 wisdom"
«detailed view» |
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