| Date | Author | Title | Source | Quotation by Merton |
| 1939/12/08 | Theresa of Avila O.C.D. | Interior Castle |
Jnl 1 ('39-'41) p. 97
| Saint Theresa [of Avila] - The Interior Castle-says we must not dwell on selfknowledge alone, but pass on from it at once and go seeking God's love above everything, because every other desire is a traitor and every other knowledge is vain without God. |
| 1940/01/13 | Ignatius of Loyola | Spiritual Exercises |
Jnl 1 ('39-'41) p. 135
| I have been going through the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius. Not giving them four hours a day but at any rate two and a half. |
| 1940/05/21 | Ignatius of Loyola | Spiritual Exercises |
Jnl 1 ('39-'41) p. 219
| Going through the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius. |
| 1940/05/21 | Thomas a Kempis | Imitation of Christ |
Jnl 1 ('39-'41) p. 220
| Most of the time wrote and wrote: a Journal, longhand, in a ledger. A novel that has perplexed three publishers without any result. And also I read. Pascal, The Little Flowers and Rule of Saint Francis; Lorca; Rilke; Imitation of Christ; Saint John of the Cross and also William Saroyan, when I was too tired to read the hard stuff. |
| 1941/01/02 | Leon Bloy | Celle qui pleure. Notre Dame de la Salette |
Jnl 1 ('39-'41) p. 283
| Foolishly I talked about Bloy's book Celle qui Pleure [She Who Weeps] and the old lady thought, concerning the apparition of La Salette, "Someone might have imposed on those children." |
| 1941/06/26 | John of the Cross | Cántico espiritual / Saint John of the Cross ; según el ms. de las Madres carmelitas de Jaen ; ed. y notas de M. Martínez Burgos |
Jnl 1 ('39-'41) p. 377
| The other night I read some of Saint John of the Cross' Cantico Espiritual which I understood much better than last spring (1940) in Havana. Also, I realized it is a much better book than I thought then. The opening is wonderful. |
| 1941/08/04 | Edward Leen | Progress through Mental Prayer |
Jnl 1 ('39-'41) p. 383
| A cleric lends me Leen's Progress through Mental Prayer which is pretty good. |
| 1941/10/08 | Saint John of the Cross | complete works of Saint John of the Cross, doctor of the church / Saint John of the Cross ; transl. from the critical edition of P. Silverio de Santa Teresa, and ed. by E. Allison Peers |
Jnl 1 ('39-'41) p. 434
| The Ascent of Mount Carmel and Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling and the "Book of Job" and the Dark Night of the Soul do not suffice to explain the heroism of this mighty child who is still, with all that, under this appearance of mediocrity which has allowed the memory to be surrounded by statues that revolt anyone who ever knew what taste was, and be desecrated by a commercialism that calls to heaven for vengeance-and yet doesn't! |
| 1941/11/27 | Evelyn Underhill | Mysticism. Study in Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness |
Jnl 1 ('39-'41) p. 455
| I spent maybe the whole afternoon writing a letter to Aldous Huxley and when I was finished I thought "who am I to be telling this guy about mysticism" and now I remember that until I read his Ends and Means just about four years ago, I hadn't known a thing about mysticism, not even the word. The part he played in my conversion, by that book, was quite great. Just how great a part a book can play in a conversion is questionable: several books figured in mine. Gilson's Spirit of Medieval Philosophy was the first and from it more than any other book I learned a healthy respect for Catholicism. Then Ends and Means from which I learned to respect mysticism. Maritain's Art and Scholasticism was another-and Blake's poems; maybe Evelyn Underhill's Mysticism although I read precious little of it. Joyce's Portrait of the Artist got me fascinated in Catholic sermons (!) What horrified him began to appeal to me! It seemed quite sane. Finally, G. F. Lahey's life of G. M. Hopkins. |
| 1945/19/27 | Jan Ruusbroec | Oeuvres de Ruysbroeck l'admirable / Jan van Ruusbroec ; trad. du flamand par les Benedictins de Saint-Paul de Wisques par Ernest Hello |
Ltrs: RtoJ p. 20
| I read much Duns Scotus, who when it comes to psychology, at any rate, fills in certain big gaps that leave you unsatisfied with St. Thomas. You would like very much John Ruysbroeck, "the admirabl""”and if you see any extra copies floating around a bookstore, tell them to send them here, with a bill, and we will give them its weight in gold, as we have practically nothing. |
| 1947/03/10 | | Cloud of Unknowing |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 42
| Tomorrow I begin the retreat. Yesterday I read a couple of chapters of The Cloud of Unknowing. Every time I pick up anything like that-including especially St. John of the Cross, I feel like the three wise men when they came out of Jerusalem and once more saw the star. |
| 1947/03/10 | John of the Cross | Living Flame of Love |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 43
| Since being in the monastery I have been hit that way by St. Theresa's Way of Perfection, chapter on distractions, etc. in the prayer of quiet, in the novitiate. [Pierre van der Meer de Walcheren's] Le Paradis Blanc about the Carthusians at La Val Saint"”the middle section called "Un Chartreux parle." Also the article on "Chartreux" in the Dictionnaire de Spiritualite [Tome II. Paris, 1937, 705-76]. Also four years ago on the feast of St. Joseph, in the novitiate-all that part of the third stanza of The Living Flame, where St. John of the Cross talks about the "deep caverns". The same way, in a different mode and degree, with Duns Scotus' 49th Distinction of the 4th Book of the Oxoniense, on beatitude, and parts of St. Bonaventure about desire. Then, too, in my second year in the novitiate, I was very struck by [Marie Michel] Philipon's book on Elizabeth of the Trinity, her prayer [La Doctrine Spirituelle de Soeur Elisabeth de la Trinite, 1947]. |
| 1947/03/10 | Marie Michel Philipon | Doctrine Spirituelle de Soeur Elisabeth de La Trinite |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 43
| Since being in the monastery I have been hit that way by St. Theresa's Way of Perfection, chapter on distractions, etc. in the prayer of quiet, in the novitiate. [Pierre van der Meer de Walcheren's] Le Paradis Blanc about the Carthusians at La Val Saint"”the middle section called "Un Chartreux parle." Also the article on "Chartreux" in the Dictionnaire de Spiritualite [Tome II. Paris, 1937, 705-76]. Also four years ago on the feast of St. Joseph, in the novitiate-all that part of the third stanza of The Living Flame, where St. John of the Cross talks about the "deep caverns". The same way, in a different mode and degree, with Duns Scotus' 49th Distinction of the 4th Book of the Oxoniense, on beatitude, and parts of St. Bonaventure about desire. Then, too, in my second year in the novitiate, I was very struck by [Marie Michel] Philipon's book on Elizabeth of the Trinity, her prayer [La Doctrine Spirituelle de Soeur Elisabeth de la Trinite, 1947]. |
| 1947/03/13 | John of the Cross | Living Flame of Love |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 46
| St. John of the Cross' Cautions are my food for this retreat and there couldn't be anything better as a preparation for vows. Also, I realize more and more that the great works of St. John of the Cross are not entirely comprehensible unless one also knows the Cautions, Maxims, Letters, and anecdotes about his life. For instance what he says about directors in The Living Flame must be qualified by what he says on Superiors in the Cautions. |
| 1947/03/13 | John of the Cross | Precautions |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 46
| St. John of the Cross' Cautions are my food for this retreat and there couldn't be anything better as a preparation for vows. Also, I realize more and more that the great works of St. John of the Cross are not entirely comprehensible unless one also knows the Cautions, Maxims, Letters, and anecdotes about his life. For instance what he says about directors in The Living Flame must be qualified by what he says on Superiors in the Cautions. |
| 1947/03/20 | John of the Cross | Precautions |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 50
| For the rest of my religious life I want with God's help to dispose myself for His work in me, to which I am now totally consecrated, by learning to put into effect the Cautions and Counsels of St. John of the Cross. There is definitely a life's work there, but it means clearing away a tremendous amount of obstacles. It seems that this is the most effective, detailed, concrete, simple and practical set of rules of procedure I have ever seen. They even go into more fundamental detail than St. Benedict's chapter "De Zelo Bono" [RB 72: "The Good Zeal of Monks"] to which they are a kind of a complement although they may seem cold and negative. |
| 1947/03/30 | Godefroid Belorgey | Pratique de l'oraison mentale. T1: Oraisons ordinaires. T2 Oraisons mystiques |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 54
| There Dom Godefroid [Belorgey]'s Chapters in the morning generally have something in them to keep souls directed to contemplative prayer. This is good. One thing that struck me about Dom Godefroid's book [Pratique de l'oraison mentale (Paris, 1945-46)] of which I read bits of the second volume on mystical prayer was that it seemed rather light and thin. But at least it issomething. |
| 1947/04/29 | Un Religieux Chartreux | La Vie Contemplative son rôle apostolique |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 69
| I read a little pamphlet from Parkminster on the contemplative, his place in the Church (not La Vie Contemplativ"”Son rôle apostolique). It was good but thin in spots. The historical argument that all the early monastic orders were considered as purely contemplative is weak because of equivocation in the term "contemplative." However, the Montreuil pamphlet is excellent. I do not cease to admire its solidity. Even this little, twenty-nine page thing from Parkminster seemed to insist that infused contemplation was the end of a contemplative vocation. The Carthusians are so clear on that point"”and we are not. |
| 1947/05/00 | Saint John of the Cross | complete works of Saint John of the Cross, doctor of the church / Saint John of the Cross ; transl. from the critical edition of P. Silverio de Santa Teresa, and ed. by E. Allison Peers |
Ltrs: RtoJ p. 170
| The autobiography [The Seven Storey Mountain] comes along slow. Haven't seen page proofs. Bob Giroux must be very busy. I was reading T. S. Eliot"”"East Coker," etc. & this time I liked him a lot. I got those books by Ruysbroeck"”in French. He is wonderful. I'd like to do an edition of him for N. Directions. As it is I am going to do John of the Cross' Dark Night for them in English & Spanish with notes"”using Peers' translation & not doing one of my own. Also I am doing a book of more or less disconnected "thoughts" & aphorisms [Seeds of Contemplation] about the interior life also for N. Directions. |
| 1947/05/23 | | Meditations Cartusiennes pour tous les jours de l'annee. Three Volumes |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 76
| From Parkminster came three volumes of Meditations Cartusiennes. I did not think I would find anything in them, but I find them very good, along the same lines as our Spiritual Directory. Some good thoughts about the Holy Ghost, the companion of the solitary. |
| 1947/06/19 | John of the Cross | Cántico espiritual / Saint John of the Cross ; según el ms. de las Madres carmelitas de Jaen ; ed. y notas de M. Martínez Burgos |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 85
| However, I see nothing for me to write that is not simply a song about His Love and about contemplation. Everything else bores and fatigues me and dries me up. And this, as a matter of fact, was the subject of the last poem I wrote, one which will not be in Figures for an Apocalypse, but which resembles some of the last ones that are. This conviction came to me quite clearly when I was studying St. John of the Cross' Spiritual Canticle today. |
| 1947/06/21 | | Meditations Cartusiennes pour tous les jours de l'annee. Three Volumes |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 86
| In the four weeks since Pentecost I have found much valuable help in those little books of Meditations Cartusiennes"”not that there is anything especially new or exalted in them, but their pages are full of simple and practical ideas about the contemplative life, ideas that apply as well to us as to them. I can always get something off one page or another, and then walk up and down the cemetery at peace and in union with God, and look at the sun going down behind the hills. |
| 1947/09/07 | Guigo I | Meditations |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 105
| I don't think as much of Guigo I's Meditations as I once thought I might. Very lapidary, but not on an interesting enough level. Why was he apparently writing for seculars? Or was he? I'd better read them some more before I can say. |
| 1947/09/14 | Bonaventura | Itinerarium |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 111
| The Feast of his Stigmatization coincides for us with the transferred Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross this year (no it doesn't!!). Read some of that marvelous VIIth Chapter of St. Bonaventure's Itinerarium-Christ on the cross the only entrance, the via [way], the ostium [door] to pure contemplation. |
| 1947/10/26 | | Cloud of Unknowing |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 128
| The only thing that gave me any relief today was when I looked in The Cloud of Unknowing for a moment at the chapter on the "lump" theory of the interior life (c. 36?), in other words, vague intuitions left without analysis-"sin"-"God"- all I can do today. |
| 1947/11/30 | Jan Ruusbroec | Oeuvres de Ruysbroeck l'admirable / Jan van Ruusbroec ; trad. du flamand par les Benedictins de Saint-Paul de Wisques par Ernest Hello |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 140
| The day before the retreat began, two volumes of the Wisques translation (French) of Ruysbroeck arrived [Oeuvres de Ruysbroeck l'Admirable, 6 volumes (Brussels and Paris, 1912"”1938)]. Father Kothen in Belgium sent them. I had been trying to get them for more than two years. Everybody said it was impossible. So that is a great grace. Ruysbroeck's feast is the day after tomorrow. So I expect great things from him in this retreat. The important thing"”find out what God really wills for m"”perfect union with His will"”give Him everything without reservations. |
| 1948/02/12 | Jan Ruusbroec | Oeuvres de Ruysbroeck l'admirable / Jan van Ruusbroec ; trad. du flamand par les Benedictins de Saint-Paul de Wisques par Ernest Hello |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 167
| But, on the other hand, I read Ruysbroeck with joy, all about immediate contact with God, "meeting" Him in the unity of our Spirit - our natural and supernatural union with Him - how He wants us to dwell with Him "above all gifts, graces and virtues". The concept has been fascinating me for a year. |
| 1948/03/04 | Vital Lehodey | Saint Abandon |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 175
| Sunday night I got two hours' sleep and Monday I was staggering around in a fog. With trembling hands I took down Dom Vital Lehodey's immortal volume on abandonment, Le Saint Abandon. Also I read the chapter in the Spiritual Directory, or, at least, began the chapter on infirmities. I am too attached to my sleep. |
| 1948/03/04 | William of St. Thierry | Speculum Fidei |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 176
| Nos adoramus quod scimus. [We adore what we know.] I wonder if William of St. Thierry quotes that. He ought to. The passage in his Speculum Fidei [The Mirror of Faith] I just read, about how faith penetrates the sacraments of visible things and seizes the res sacramenti [the matter of the sacrament] by the understanding which is a gift"”an experienc"”sensus amoris illuminatus [the sense illuminated by love]"”all this fits in with that Gospel and could be a commentary on it. |
| 1948/04/11 | John of the Cross | Precautions |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 198
| I read over St. John of the Cross' Cautions, which were the things I had in mind to keep when I made solemn profession, and I saw to my dismay how much I had forgotten them. |
| 1948/05/17 | Godefroid Belorgey | Humilite Benedictine |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 206-06
| But providentially Dom Godefroid Belorgey's new book, L'Humilite Benedictine [Paris, 1948], came in at that moment. It is on the whole very good. So I started it and with the grace of the Holy Ghost the familiar ideas of Dom Anselme le Bail struck me in a new way and opened up new depths and let some fresh air into my prayer and delivered me from myself, and so, I have a lot to be grateful for: a recollected weekend, peaceful and free! |
| 1948/08/22 | John of the Cross | Precautions |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 227
| Tomorrow we choose the one who is to lead us for a certain time to God, to make saints of us. I got time to think about it and to remind myself of the vow I will renew when he is installed"”that is to be tomorrow also. And what it means. I read over St. John of the Cross' remarks about obedience in the Cautelas, and all I want is to carry them out, to let God guide me by the one He is choosing. |
| 1948/10/19 | Gerald Ellard | Christian Life and Worship |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 239
| This morning I got the idea that perhaps I ought to be reading something about the subdiaconate, since my ordination is coming up soon. So instead of getting off somewhere quietly and praying, I wasted almost the whole morning interval in the Scriptorium dipping into Ruysbroeck and books like that, and [Gerald] Ellard's Christian Life and Worship, not to mention the index to Migne P.[atrologia] L.[atina]. I couldn't get settled on anything. I have less and less desire to read anything about anything"”all I need is a book about prayer"”or a Bibl"”something that can give me one sentence as a spring board for contemplation. |
| 1948/10/31 | John of the Cross | Obras de San Juan de la Cruz / edit. y anot. por P. Silverio de Santa Teresa |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 240
| Beautiful stuff in a Letter of St. John of the Cross to the Nuns of Beas (Carta V) [Letter 5, vol. 3]: Veremos las riquezas ganadas en el amor puro y sendas de la vida eternal y los pasos hermosos que dan en Cristo, cuyos deleite y corona son sus esposas: cosa digna de no andar por el suelo rodando, sino de ser tornada en las manos de los Angeles y serafines, y con reverencia y aprecio la pongan en la cabeza de un señor. [We shall see what wealth you have gained in pure love and in the paths of eternal life and what excellent progress you are making in Christ, Whose brides are His delight and crown: and a crown deserves not merely to be sent rolling along the floor, but to be taken by the angels and seraphim in their hands and set with reverence and esteem on the head of their Lord.] Nobody ever writes us Trappists a letter like that. |
| 1949/05/13 | William of St. Thierry | Golden Epistle |
Ltrs: RtoJ p. 192
| I am busy trying to learn how to say Mass. My health is all right, except that I have a vile cold at the moment. That poor book is simply on the shelf until after our centenary. I get many little errands to do. A Benedictine in Belgium now has me checking variants in our manuscript of William of St. Thierry's Golden Epistle. "Do unto others "¦" I cannot refuse these services. Besides, I have the example of your devoted care in sending me copies of so many valuable notes. |
| 1949/05/23 | John of the Cross | Living Flame of Love |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 314
| I can't read anything but St. John of the Cross. I opened The Living Flame at the line Rompe la tela de este dulce encuentro [Tear the veil of this sweet encounter]. The priesthood as an encounter of the substance of my soul with the Living God! I do not understand it yet. Perhaps I will know more about it on Thursday. Anyway, that will be my prayer: that more of the curtains may be taken away, and that the servitude of desires that burden my whole life may be diminished, and that I may be liberated and come closer to Him in the Mass-in every Mass I offer. |
| 1949/07/09 | Jean-Baptiste Porion | Sainte Trinite et la Vie Intereure |
Ltrs: CforT p. 25
| Dom Porion sent me his delightful book on the Holy Trinity and the interior life, and on every page I found echoes of my own deepest interests and preoccupations. It is a beautiful book, especially beautiful in its simplicity. I close with the assurance that I remember you in my Mass, which remains my greatest joy, and I feel that Our Lord is pouring out the love of His Heart upon all my dear friends through this Sacrifice which He has given me the privilege of offering each day for them. |
| 1949/07/10 | Jean-Baptiste Porion | Sainte Trinite et la Vie Intereure |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 333
| Dom Porion sent me a little book he wrote anonymously, La Sainte Trinite et la Vie Interieure [Paris, 1948], and I was charmed by it. It is perfect in its kind. It is really a summary of all dogma, but very simple. It is a contemplative summary and therefore at the extreme opposite to anything that might have been boiled down for students. This is a summary which reveals the simple, allembracing intuition of the contemplative who sees all theology in the light of his mystical taste of reality in its highest causes. |
| 1949/07/21 | Johannes Tauler | Sermons de Tauler : traduction sur les plus anciens manuscrits allemands / par les RR. PP. Hugueny, Thery, O. P. et A. L. Corin |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 339-40
| I have found many good things in Hugeny's Theological Introduction to his translation of Tauler [Sermons de Tauler, 3 volumes]. He is especially good on the psychological factors in contemplation and on natural contemplation. I have never read anything so clear and so sensible on the subject. At the center of contemplation is this complete, global comprehension of a truth, not in its details but in its wholeness, not as an abstract matter of speculation, but apprehended in all that appeals to our affective powers so that it is appreciated and prized and savored. |
| 1949/08/05 | Thomas Aquinas | Commentary on the Gospel of St. John |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 345-46
| I find an interesting passage in St. Thomas' commentary on St. John, Chapter I (Lectio XIV), the place where Jesus turns to Andrew and John who have asked Him where He lives and He says, "Come and see." Thomas interprets this mystically as evidence that we can only come to know Jesus dwelling within us by experience. But I take this experimental knowledge of the presence of God in us to be contemplation. He then says there are four ways of arriving at this experimental knowledge. Two are, as one might expect, by interior quiet and rest, and by the taste of the divine sweetness. But the other two are, first, by the performance of good works, and second, per operationem devotionis [by works of devotion]. I don't know precisely what that means but in any case it is an activity. Hence it is easy to see that for St. Thomas there is in practice no contradiction between contemplation and activity. |
| 1949/12/06 | John of the Cross | Cántico espiritual / Saint John of the Cross ; según el ms. de las Madres carmelitas de Jaen ; ed. y notas de M. Martínez Burgos |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 375
| There is supposed to be a special group coming to the vault after Benediction on Sundays and Feasts to talk about special points. That means mostly St. John of the Cross, as far as I am concerned. I am going through The Spiritual Canticle again in Spanish out behind the horse barn in a little corner behind the cedars where I can sit among the blackberry bushes out of the wind. It is still warm enough to sit out there even in summer clothes. I feel like learning snatches of St. John's Spanish by heartjust snatches. It is inviting and easy. Phrases cling to you without your making half an effort to grasp them. |
| 1949/12/17 | John of the Cross | Cántico espiritual / Saint John of the Cross ; según el ms. de las Madres carmelitas de Jaen ; ed. y notas de M. Martínez Burgos |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 380
| Walking back from the barns in the warm sun on the muddy road between the orchard and the vegetable garden with The Spiritual Canticle under my arm and saying those wonderful words. I found a wonderful place to read and pray, on the top floor of that barn building where the rabbits used to be. Up under the roof is a place reached by various ladders. |
| 1950/00/00 | John of the Cross | Precautions |
Ltrs: SofC p. 19
| I had been hoping to meditate a little on the Cautions of St. John of the Cross. I have at least glanced through them. I took them as the standard of my religious life at solemn profession and have never really lived up to them. I know they contain the secret of success. Using them I know that I can really make good use of the opportunities God has given me here. I can lead a contemplative life here. It takes some doing, but if I do not insist on having everything exactly my own way, Our Lord will do most of the work. |
| 1950/01/31 | John Cassian | Joannis Cassiani Opera omnia cum amplissimis commentariis Alardi Gazæi in hoc parisiensi editione, contra quam in lipsiensi, textui continenter ad majorem commoditatem lectoris subjacentibus |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 404-05
| Hesychasm-is that the English word for it?-has been my latest discovery. I came across it in the Etudes Carmelitaines. It is a discipline, a technique to dispose the mind and body for contemplation. It is, or was, practiced by monks in the Orthodox Church. It is something like Yoga, but not so formal or so detailed. And it centers upon the Name of Jesus (as the Yogis concentrate all their powers upon the Mantra or Name of God) or on words of Scripture. What I like about it is that it reflected the spirituality of the Fathers of the Desert (cf. Cassian's conference on the Deus in Ad-jutorium is not really comprehensible, I think, without reference to the kind of interiorization implied by hesychasm) and of the Greek Fathers. But it also throws light on St. Bernard's sermon on the Holy Name. St. Bernard's prayer must have been something like hesychasm. |
| 1950/12/03 | John of the Cross | Precautions |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 444
| I am haunted by the Cautelas of St. John of the Cross. Especially the second, against the flesh, against solicitude for material things |
| 1950/12/08 | Henry David Thoreau | Walden or Life in the Woods |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 446
| Compare the basic asceticism in Walden with that of St. John of the Crossagreement on the fundamental idea-not, of course, on the means or technique, except to some extent. Ascesis of solitude. Simplification of life. The separation of reality from illusion. "If we respected only what is inevitable, and has a right to be, music and poetry would resound along the streets." |
| 1951/03/04 | Saint John of the Cross | complete works of Saint John of the Cross, doctor of the church / Saint John of the Cross ; transl. from the critical edition of P. Silverio de Santa Teresa, and ed. by E. Allison Peers |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 452
| Shall I re-read the bits in The Ascent of Mount Carmel about the memory? They seem to do me so much good-always. Year after year, returning to them. In what sense do they make a difference in my life? |
| 1953/01/28 | Max Picard | World of Silence |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 29
| Fine ideas in Picard's World of Silence. (A train of the old time sings in my present silence, at St. Anne's, where the watch without a crystal ticks on the little desk.) 1. Foolish to expect a man "to develop all the possibilities that are within him." "The possibilities that are not fully realized nourish the substance of silence. Silence is strengthened by them and gives of this additional strength to the other potentialities that are fully realized." p. 67. 2. "There is room for contradictions within the substance of silenc"¦A man who still has the substance of silence within him does not always need to be watching the movements of his inmost being." p. 66. 3. True solitude "does not derive from subjectivity. Solitude stands before man as something objective, even the solitude within himself. Solitude for the saints was not a result of great exertion like the ‘inward' solitude of today." p. 65. |
| 1953/02/24 | Marie-Eugène de l'Enfant Jesus, O.C.D. | Je suis fille d'eglise |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 36
| Yesterday, began our Lenten book, Je suis fille d'eglise [I Am a Daughter of the Church, by P. Marie-Eugène, O.C.D.], about Theresian mysticism. Glad to get it but terribly oppressed by the necessity to read about mystical prayer. Noise of trucks coming through the window. Sunlight in the room. Very happy to be here, and yet feeling tense and ashamed and poor. Pushed ahead with the reading as a pure effort of obedience. And I mean effort. No help, no relief, except to look at the harmless titles of the books on the shelf in front of me, books that I will never have to touch. (Jesus All Good; Methode pour assister les malades, etc.) Gone are the days when "mysticism" was for me a matter of eager and speculative interest. Now, because it is my life, it is torment to think about. |
| 1953/11/05 | Jean Leclercq o.s.b. | Alone with God |
Ltrs: SofC p. 70
| It was a satisfaction to me when Father Abbot gave me permission to write the preface for your volume on Paul Giustiniani [Alone With God]. The preface is completed and is on the way to you by surface mail. I was happy to write it, and happy to go over your book again. I feel that it is especially important that the true place of the solitary in the Church should be brought out at this time when there are so many who despise contemplation and when even in the monastic orders there is a tendency to go off the right road precisely because the values for which the solitary exists are not appreciated. If my preface does not suit you, please feel free to alter or cut as you see fit, but let me know. Perhaps I could go over the proofs of this preface. |
| 1956/07/29 | Diadochos of Photike | Capita centum de perfectione spirituali |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 59
| Diadochos-"the abyss of faith boils if you examine it, but if you look upon it with simplicity, it becomes once again calm. For being a river of Lethe in which evils are forgotten, the depths of faith do not bear to be looked upon with indiscreet reasonings. Let us therefore call upon the waters with simplicity of thought in order to reach thus the harbor of the divine Will." (Conferences-chap. 22) "No one can genuinely love or believe unless he has within himself his own answer." (id. [Conferences] 23) |
| 1956/08/14 | Origenes | Treatise on Prayer. |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 64
| The Treatise on Prayer is the first thing of Origen's that I have really liked except perhaps the Homilies on Exodus and Numbers. It is simple and great. He really is a tremendous mind, although he often looks ordinary or even stuffy. But no, The Treatise on Prayer is great. One of the best things ever written on prayer-by its wholeness, objectivity. It is catholic and clear and close to the Gospel-Christ talks and speaks in it. |
| 1956/08/20 | Emmanuel Mounier | Personalism |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 70-71
| It is easy to say of every new idea one meets-"It is all in St. Bernard." It is very doubtful, for instance, whether Freud is "all in St. Bernard." However, Mounier's "Personalism" is essentially present in St. Bernard. Hence to read Mounier with understanding is most profitable spiritual reading not only because it helps to understand St. Bernard but helps us to use him. We are paralyzed in our individualism and we turn everything to the advantage of sterile self-isolation (self centered) and we do this in the name of our contemplative calling. |
| 1957/09/10 | Saint John of the Cross | complete works of Saint John of the Cross, doctor of the church / Saint John of the Cross ; transl. from the critical edition of P. Silverio de Santa Teresa, and ed. by E. Allison Peers |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 116
| Went to Terrell Dickey about layouts for a postulant's pamphlet... He kept kidding me about wanting a modern layout. And gave me a huge magazine called Holiday all about South America written mostly by "that ass" V. S. Pritchett (Waugh called him that). So for all I know about it is that for Pritchett, South America is a "body blow." Well, for me too. Even the magazine is that. Reading John of the Cross again, fundamentals in the Ascent to avoid getting too many such body blows. "When you live by your eyes and ears as I do"¦" says Pritchett. Hungry for experiences, which is what he accused me of being. |
| 1957/09/15 | Saint John of the Cross | complete works of Saint John of the Cross, doctor of the church / Saint John of the Cross ; transl. from the critical edition of P. Silverio de Santa Teresa, and ed. by E. Allison Peers |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 118
| A Series of sentence fragments from John of the Cross's The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book I, chapter 13, 4-6. |
| 1957/09/15 | Saint John of the Cross | complete works of Saint John of the Cross, doctor of the church / Saint John of the Cross ; transl. from the critical edition of P. Silverio de Santa Teresa, and ed. by E. Allison Peers |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 119
| And this is what happens to people with a priori notions of what pleases God or "ought" to please Him. (Eating always displeases Him, fasting always pleases Him etc.) They end up by disobeying in everything or almost everything. The true will of God for us as Christ has taught it to us and St. Paul. Making void the law of God for the traditions of man. St. John of the Cross himself leads readers into this misapprehension. Where he says, "Strive always to choose not that which is easiest but that which is most difficult," he seems to be saying that the difficult is always the most perfect, the most pleasing to God and the easy is always imperfect-always less pleasing to God, always displeasing. The perfect equated with the hard and unpleasant. To say this is sometimes true is correct, To say it is always and necessarily so is FALSE! And that is the trouble. |
| 1957/11/12 | Jacques Guillet | Thèmes bibliques. Etudes sur l'expression et le developement de la revelation |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 135
| Necessity of the Bible. More and more of it. A book like Gillet's Thèmes bibliques fantastically rich and useful. Every line has something in it you do not want to miss. Opens up new roads in the Old Testament. Extraordinary richness and delicacy of the varied OT concepts of sin-very existential concepts, not at all mere moralism! For instance sin as a "failur" to contact God. Peccavi tibi. "I have failed Thee-I have failed to reach Thee." And all that follows from that! Importance of reading and thinking and keeping silent. Self-effacement, not in order to be left looking at oneself but to be "found in Christ" and lost to the rest. Yet-not by refusing to take interest in anything vital. Politics vital-even for monks. But in this, due place and with right measure. To live in a monastery as if the world had stopped turning in 1905-a fatal illusion. |
| 1958/11/13 | Josef Pieper | Happiness and Contemplation |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 230
| "The whole of political life seems to be ordered with a view of attaining the happiness of contemplation. For peace which is established and preserved by virtue of political activity, places man in a position to devote himself to contemplation of the Truth." St. Thomas in Eth. quoted in Pieper's lucid Happiness and Contemplation, p. 94. Failure of materialistic society in US and in Russia-the lack of all sense of what to do with the time that has been saved by techniques, to fulfill one's practical life spontaneously seek fulfillment in contemplation but the wrong kind. TV etc. "The greatest menace to our capacity for contemplation is the incessant fabrication of tawdry, empty stimuli which kill the receptivity of the soul." Pieper.p. 102. |
| 1958/12/19 | Paul Brunton | Hermit in the Himalayas / pen name of Raphael Hurst |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 240
| Today began reading what seems to be a remarkable though poorly written book-Hermit in the Himalayas by Brinton-I picked it up by "chanc" in the Louisville library last week. |
| 1959/06/28 | Eckhart | Meister Eckhart / Meister Eckhart ; a modern transl. by Raymond Bernard Blakney |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 298
| Opened a new translation of Eckhart, and immediately hit upon this: "Obedience has no cares, it lacks no blessings. Being obedient, if a man purifies himself, God will come to him in course; for where he has no will of his own, then God will command for what God would command for Himself"¦ When I do not choose for myself, God chooses for me." I am sure now that it has been a temptation, all along, to think that by staying here where I like to pray in the woods I would be cuddling in self-love. |
| 1959/12/02 | | Cloud of Unknowing |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 350
| Knowles on the English mystics. How much I love the 14th. century and how truly it is my own century, the one whose spirit is most mine, in many ways, or so I like to think (Rolle-The Cloud of Unknowing-etc.). |
| 1959/12/02 | David Knowles o.s.b. | Religious Orders in England |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 350
| Knowles on the English mystics. How much I love the 14th. century and how truly it is my own century, the one whose spirit is most mine, in many ways, or so I like to think (Rolle-The Cloud of Unknowing-etc.). |
| 1960/01/30 | Jacques Maritain | Liturgie et contemplation / par Jacques et Raïssa Maritain ; pref. de Charles Journet |
Ltrs: CforT p. 28
| Many thanks for your valuable little book on Liturgy and Contemplation [Liturgie et contemplation, coauthored with Raissa]. I have read it with pleasure and deep agreement and am happy that you have spoken out, so clearly, on the misunderstandings and ambiguities of this pseudoproblem. It is certainly true that those who oppose one to the other are either false liturgists or false contemplatives, and it is doubly true that behind a lot of the insistence on liturgy is a purely human gregariousness. "Togetherness""”and a sort of boyscout mania for organized piety, I wonder what the reactions will be. I do not have to wonder, though. There will probably be the usual misunderstandings and recriminations. |
| 1960/10/03 | Andre Marie Jean Festugière | Contemplation et vie contemplative selon Platon |
Jnl 4 ('60-'63) p. 55
| After night office, long quiet interval, reading [Andre Marie Jean] Festugière on Plato. And that life of Dom Martène. In a way I admire Saint-Germain-des- Pres and in a way I don't. I admire their scholarship, not their rigidity. |
| 1960/10/24 | Andre Marie Jean Festugière | Contemplation et vie contemplative selon Platon |
Jnl 4 ('60-'63) p. 59
| Coffee after night office and the good long silence until Prime. Deliciae meae. [My delights.] This is something wonderful, and in this silence, reading Festugière, I have finally come to admit to what extent I have always been a Platonist. My reservations about Plato have gone, since the Phaedo (understanding of course always that one is not obliged to agree with every theory!). |
| 1960/11/17 | Bruno de Jesus-Marie o.c.d. | Saint Jean de la Croix |
Ltrs: HGL p. 44
| In regard to St. John of the Cross, I think we have here some paperback editions of his main works and I have asked them to be sent to you. I might also refer you to the life of St. John of the Cross, in French, by Père Bruno de Jesus-Marie, which has some interesting pages on the possible influence of Sufism in the mysticism of St. John of the Cross. References will lead you further along these lines. |
| 1960/11/17 | Jan Ruysbroeck | Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage |
Ltrs: HGL p. 45
| Some important books which I recommend to you can be obtained from Harper Brothers "¦ They are publishing an interesting little volume, the Centuries of Thomas Traherne, which you ought to have "¦ They print something of Fenelon, I believe. Also a fine book by John Ruysbroeck, the Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage. You should also get to know the anonymous Cloud of Unknowing. St. Bernard of Clairvaux, one of the early fathers of the Cistercian Order of which I am a monk, has some very important mystical writings. Perhaps the best way to get to know him would be to read the Mystical Theology of St. Bernard by Etienne Gilson. |
| 1960/11/17 | Thomas Trahern | Centuries, Poems and Thanksgivings |
Ltrs: HGL p. 45
| Some important books which I recommend to you can be obtained from Harper Brothers "¦ They are publishing an interesting little volume, the Centuries of Thomas Traherne, which you ought to have "¦ They print something of Fenelon, I believe. Also a fine book by John Ruysbroeck, the Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage. You should also get to know the anonymous Cloud of Unknowing. St. Bernard of Clairvaux, one of the early fathers of the Cistercian Order of which I am a monk, has some very important mystical writings. Perhaps the best way to get to know him would be to read the Mystical Theology of St. Bernard by Etienne Gilson. |
| 1961/03/03 | Benet of Canfield | Rule of Perfection |
Jnl 4 ('60-'63) p. 97
| I started the mystical theology class Wednesday (Mar. 1). [Note 5: Merton's lecture notes for this series of classes on ascetical and mystical theology remain unpublished See my article "Patterns in Thomas Merton's ‘Introduction to Ascetical and Mystical Theology,'" Cistercian Studies, Vol 24 (1989), pp 338-54] I continued today A.M. reading the ms. of Benet of Canfield sent by Mrs. [Etta] Gullick, from Oxford, and it has come from God. Essential will. |
| 1961/03/07 | Benet of Canfield | Rule of Perfection |
Jnl 4 ('60-'63) p. 98
| Finished reading the MS of Pt. III of Canfield's Rule of Perfection. It is really very fine. |
| 1961/04/02 | Julian of Norwich | Revelations of Divine Love |
Jnl 4 ('60-'63) p. 105
| Yesterday-reading bits of Dame Julian of Norwich and today I began Gregory of Nyssa's homilies on the Canticle. |
| 1961/05/15 | | Cloud of Unknowing |
Ltrs: HGL p. 341-42
| I have heard of The Mirror of Simple Souls. It is attributed to Marguerite Porete, an unfortunate Beguine who was burned for some very innocent statements. I would like to get to know this book. Which is the new Penguin version of the Cloud? I have read one that was printed in America by a man called Progoff. If this is not the one that has been put out by Penguin, I should be delighted to see it. |
| 1961/06/10 | Marguerite Porete | Mirror of Simple Souls |
Ltrs: HGL p. 342
| The Mirror of Simple Souls still interests me and I want to look into it more. I forget where I ran across the suggestion that it could be attributed to Marguerite Porete, but perhaps in the new Histoire de Spiritualite , in which case the suggestion would be due to Dom F. Vandenbroucke. Do let me know if you find anything interesting. We did not begin taking the Downside Review until just recently, and so I have not read the articles on Eckhart. I like him, but now and again he leaves one with a sense of being let down, when he goes beyond all bounds. He is more brilliant than all the other Rhenish mystics and really more interesting. Yet I like Tauler for a more steady diet. Him too I read in French, I must get the German. The Penguin Cloud did not come, but the Orthodox Prayers did and I am very happy with them |
| 1961/07/01 | Walter Hilton | Scale of Perfection |
Ltrs: HGL p. 343
| I like the Penguin edition of the Cloud. It is clear and easy for the contemporary reader. Yet it does lose some of the richness of the older more concrete English. I like the fourteenth-century English mystics more and more. I am reading [Walter Hilton's] The Scale [of Perfection], which has such a great deal in it. And you are of course right about Eckhart. He is more and more wonderful, and when properly interpreted, becomes less "way out" as our beats say. There is more in one sermon of Eckhart than in volumes of other people. There is so much packed in between the lines. |
| 1961/07/04 | Eckhart | Meister Eckhart / Meister Eckhart ; a modern transl. by Raymond Bernard Blakney |
Jnl 4 ('60-'63) p. 137
| I am becoming entranced with Eckhart: I have been won by the brevity, the incisiveness of his sermons, his way of piercing straight to the heart of the inner life, the awakened spark, the creative and redeeming word, God born in us. He is a great man who was pulled down by little men who thought they could destroy him. Who thought they could take him to Avignon and have him ruined and indeed he was ruined in 28 propositions which did not altogether resemble his joy and his energy and his freedom, but which could be brought to coincide with words he had uttered. |
| 1961/08/06 | Eckhart | Meister Eckhart / Meister Eckhart ; a modern transl. by Raymond Bernard Blakney |
Jnl 4 ('60-'63) p. 148
| Today I read the wonderful sermon on the divine truth in which Eckhart says that as a person about to be struck by a thunderbolt turns toward it, and all the leaves of a tree about to be struck turn toward it, so one in whom the divine birth is to take place turns, without realizing, completely toward it. |
| 1961/08/26 | | Cloud of Unknowing |
Jnl 4 ('60-'63) p. 156
| Finally, three wonderful chapters in the Cloud of Unknowing on Martha and Mary, ending with this, which is everything: "Therefore you who set out to be a contemplative as Mary was, choose rather to be humbled by the unimaginable greatness and incomparable perfection of God than by your own wretchedness and imperfections. In other words look more to God's worthiness than to your own worthlessness. To the perfectly humble there is nothing lacking, spiritual or physical. For they have God in whom is all abundance and whoever has Him needs nothing else in this life." (ch. 23) |
| 1961/09/24 | Henry Corbin | Imagination creatrice dans le soufisme d'Ibn 'Arabi |
Ltrs: HGL p. 50
| Henry Corbin is an author in whom I am greatly interested and think that his book on Ibn Arabi is going to be very important for me. I like very much the first pages of it and the approach that he takes. This is an aspect of mysticism that I have not studied so much: that of the intermediate realm of what the Greek Fathers called theoria physike (natural contemplation) which deals with the symbols and images of things and their character as words or manifestations of God the Creator, whose wisdom is in them. I hope sometime to send you a little thing I have written on Wisdom (Sophia). It is being printed in a very limited edition on a hand press by a good friend of mine. It will be very rare. |
| 1961/10/09 | Gaston Brillet | Meditations on the Old Testament |
Ltrs: SofC p. 140
| There is a rather good book by Brillet, Meditations on the Old Testament . In fact it is in four volumes. As a meditation book it is not extraordinary but it does tie up meditation with the reading of the Scriptures. Since the Scriptures are the word of God they are certainly the ideal way of opening up a meditative approach to Our Lord, dialogue, response and communion with Him in faith, hope and love. And that is what meditation is. Since there is so much richness and solid meat in the Scriptures, and since reading of the Scriptures tends to be objective and simple, meditation on them can also preserve us from too much self-conscious and reflexive activity. |
| 1962/01/29 | Marguerite Porete | Mirror of Simple Souls |
Ltrs: HGL p. 350
| Eric Colledge in an introduction to an English translation of some sermons of Tauler says that a Dr. Romana Guarnieri has advanced the thesis that The Mirror of Simple Souls was definitely by Marguerite Porete and that the Latin, Italian and French texts are being edited. If you see anything of this, or any articles about it, will you please let me know? |
| 1962/03/30 | Julian of Norwich | Revelations of Divine Love |
Ltrs: HGL p. 351
| Did you ever get anywhere with Julian of Norwich? Though it might not seem so at first sight, I think there is much in her that is relevant to the Dark Night. At least theologically, if not exactly in the order of the classic experience. But certainly the great thing is passing with Christ through death out of this world to the Father, and one does not reduce this to a "classic experience." It must remain incomprehensible to a great extent. |
| 1962/03/30 | Marguerite Porete | Mirror of Simple Souls |
Ltrs: HGL p. 351
| "¦ Where did I see, the other day, something about a new edition of The Mirror of Simple Souls, and definitely ascribed to Marguerite Porete? Perhaps it was somewhere in the new Molinari book on Julian of Norwich, which I have only begun and then had to set aside for more urgent matters. If there is a new one out, I will wait to get that instead of borrowing the Orchard edition. But I could also probably get an old copy of that from Tom Burns at Burns Oates. |
| 1962/04/00 | Alacantara Mens | Oorsprong en betekenis van de Nederlandse begijnen - en begardenbeweging. Vergelijkende studie XII-XIII eeuw |
Ltrs: WtoF p. 49
| When Rev. Dom Edward was here I did indeed speak to him about my interest in the Beguines in the Low Countries and their relation both to the Cistercians on the one hand and to the Rhenish mystics on the other. He advised me to write to you, but as I had little or no time to pursue the study further, I failed to do so. But now it is a great pleasure to receive your letter, which came several weeks ago, I regret to say"”I am behind with all my correspondenc"”and then the splendid book of Fr. Mens on the Beguines. I have never tried reading a whole book in Flemish before and this will be a kind of challenge. But I am most grateful for your gift and deeply appreciate it "¦ |
| 1962/06/00 | Thomas Trahern | Centuries of Meditation |
Ltrs: WtoF p. 245
| You might find interesting leads in Bouyer's new book Seat of Wisdom. And of course there is always Berdyaev "¦ His "Sense of Creation" (if that is the English title, I read it in French) is full of wild ideas, but a few good ones also. Have you by the way read Traherne's Centuries of Meditations, published recently by Harper's? He has delightful insights on this subject. As to the Scholastics, I would say try St. Bonaventure's Collationes in Haexemeron. (In general all the Patristic treatises on the work of the six days would offer interesting material.) I am on and off reading Clement of Alexandria and will try to keep you in mind if I run across more material. Then there is Gregory of Nyssa. A new collection of texts by Danielou and Musurillo should offer a few possibilities. |
| 1962/06/10 | Cassiodorus | De Anima |
Jnl 4 ('60-'63) p. 226-27
| What more beautiful or more appropriate than these lines of Cassiodorus where he speaks of the soul as a light, in the likeness of the divine light? Then of God: Illud autem quod ineffabile veneramur arcanum Quod ubique totum et invisibiliter praesens est Pater et Filius et Spiritus Sanctus Una essentia et indiscreta majestas Splendor supra omnes fulgores, gloria supra omne praeconium Quod mundissima anima et Deo dedita potest quidem ex aliqua parte sentire sed non idonee explicare. Nam quemadmodum fas est de illo sufficienter dici qui creaturae sensu non potest comprehendi? [But that which we reverence as unspeakable secret which is everywhere totally and invisibly present Father, Son and Holy Spirit One essence and undivided majesty Splendor above all light, glory above all honor Which the purest soul dedicated to God can experience everywhere but not explain. For what can ever be said of this being who cannot be understood by his creatures?] [n.8: Merton will later publish a more refined translation of these lines in Conjecturesof a Guilty Bystander (New York, 1966), pp 208-9] |
| 1962/06/16 | Marguerite Porete | Mirror of Simple Souls |
Ltrs: HGL p. 352
| Many thanks for the good news about The Mirror of Simple Souls. It was very good of you to get in contact with M. Orcibal and I am delighted to hear the printing exists: perhaps if it is only a loan to you, I might find out some way of obtaining a copy myself. This is really interesting. |
| 1962/09/21 | Alfred Delp S.J. | Prison Meditations of Father Alfred Delp |
Jnl 4 ('60-'63) p. 248-49
| Fr. [Godfrey] Diekmann definitely wants me to review the Powers book for Worship and it will be a pleasure. Still more moving and important a task, one that stirs me deeply, is the introduction to Fr. Delp's meditations[The Prison Meditations of Father Alfred Delp, New York, 1963] in prison. It is perhaps the most clear-sighted book of Christian meditations of our time. A strange contrast and comparison with Boethius. Not "consoling" except in the profound sense in which the truth consoles one who has been stripped of illusions. How honest he is about the Church and about modern man! |
| 1962/09/26 | Alfred Delp S.J. | Prison Meditations of Father Alfred Delp |
Jnl 4 ('60-'63) p. 250-51
| Reading the magnificent Prison Meditations of Fr. Delp. In ms. I am to write the preface for Herder and Herder. Superb, powerful material. Totally different from the rather depressing false optimism of our establishment. Here a true optimism of one who really sees through the evil and irreligion of our condition and finds himself in Christ-through poverty, crying out from the abyss, answered and rescued by the Spirit..... Delp says: "Of course the Church still has skillful apologists, clever and compelling preachers, wise leaders; but the simple confidence that senses the right course and proceeds to act on it is just not there." |
| 1962/10/29 | Marguerite Porete | Mirror of Simple Souls |
Ltrs: HGL p. 355
| Thanks so much for The Mirror of Simple Souls. I am really enjoying it, though I find that I have a hard time getting anywhere for great lengths in such books. A little goes a long way. It is an admirable book, but one which one does not really "read." I hold it in my hand walking about in the woods, as if I were reading. But it is charming and bold and right. I am more and more convinced that if you are in dryness and such, these books only increase the problem (if it is a problem). At the same time I think we make problems for ourselves where there really are none. There is too much conscious "spiritual lif" floating around us, and we are too aware that we are supposed to get somewhere. Well, where? If you reflect, the answer turns out to be a word that is never very close to any kind of manageable reality. If that is the case, perhaps we are already in that where. In which case why do we torment ourselves looking around to verify a fact which we cannot see in any case? We should let go our hold upon our self and our will, and be in the Will in which we are. Contentment is very important, of course I mean what seems to be contentment with despair. And the worst thing of all is false optimism. |
| 1962/12/18 | Raïssa Maritain | Journal de Raïssa |
Jnl 4 ('60-'63) p. 278
| Jacques Maritain has sent Raissa's journal, a most moving and lucid and soulcleansing book. It is wonderful to read and to share so perfectly such things, on which one's own whole life is centered. Especially the trials and their meaning. |
| 1962/12/18 | Raïssa Maritain | Journal de Raïssa |
Ltrs: CforT p. 33
| I am overwhelmed by Raissa's Journal. How to put it? You must know better than I do. This document is like the sunrise, a wonder that is ordinary but if you are more attentive you find it an astounding event. I read it in solitude in the woods. Each sentence opens our heart to God. It's a book full of windows. What moves me most is that in each line I see and I hear this "child" of Proverbs 8:27"”31 "ludens in orbe terrarum" [playing on the surface of the earth], ludens too in Raïssa. I dreamed a few times of this child (who the first time presented herself as a girl of the race of St. Anne) and she was sad and quiet because everyone was making fun of her strange name which was "Proverb." Also, another time on a Louisville street I saw suddenly that everyone was Proverb, without knowing it. Raissa's words are filled with the presence and the light of this wisdom-child. She is "Proverb." Especially she reminds me of that mystic that I love above all others, Julian of Norwich. (Raïssa even speaks of the maternal knees of God.) She has the same tone, the same candor. I will treasure this book. To receive it is an event of significance and a very great grace. It is not only Raïssa that moves me in this book but your love for her and her love for you and your love for all your friends. This is what the Church is all about. |
| 1962/12/27 | Raïssa Maritain | Journal de Raïssa |
Jnl 4 ('60-'63) p. 281
| Jacques Maritain sent Raissa's Journal, a most remarkable book full of clarity and simplicity. She had an unusual life of prayer, a very intelligent life of contemplation, very pure, great virginity of spirit and of intelligence. Surely she was a saint and I am most happy for this privileged look into material which may never be given to the general public (and I have urged Jacques not to publish it). I am sure this book has come to me providentially. It helps set so many things in order. |
| 1963/05/07 | Marguerite Porete | Mirror of Simple Souls |
Ltrs: HGL p. 583
| Recently I have read The Mirror of Simple Souls, which Etta Gullick lent me. It is a marvelous book, and has some magnificent and original things in it. And is so splendidly written. I understand it is by Marguerite Porete, who was burned at the stake. Dom Porion, translator of Hadewijch of Antwerp, says this. There is no question that the mystics are the ones who have kept Christianity going, if anyone has. The Fenelon-Bossuet business, as an official and in some ways almost definitive victory for officialdom over mysticism, is a critical point in history. That is why it is interesting to see that Fenelon, before he got into mysticism, was already also criticizing the autocratic and unjust war politic of Louis XIV. It all hangs together. |
| 1963/06/02 | | Way of the Pilgrim |
Ltrs: HGL p. 54
| Yes, I know the Way of the Pilgrim very well. It is a fine book. The Russian mystics are too little known. I believe that the "Jesus Prayer" has parallels with certain Sufist methods of prayer: I have read about this somewhere. I would be grateful for any information that occurs to you about Sufist ways of prayer and contemplation. |
| 1963/06/04 | Grimlaicus | Regula Solitariorum |
Jnl 4 ('60-'63) p. 328
| (Contemplativus) res mundi mundo profecit, et seipsum Christo devota mente restituit, a quo sibi donari immortales divitias orat. [(The Contemplative) leaves the things of the world to the world, and restores himself with a devoted mind abandoned to Christ, from whom he prays that He will give lasting riches.] Regula Solitariorum [Rule for Solitaries], Grimlaicus, C[hap] 10 |
| 1963/06/05 | Grimlaicus | Regula Solitariorum |
Jnl 4 ('60-'63) p. 328
| Peculiariter autem ad professionem nostram pertinet nihil honoris in hac vita requirere sed honores fuger"¦.[It peculiarly belongs to our profession to seek no honor in this life, but to flee honors"¦.] Regula Solitariorum, c. 23 In spite of the above, today is the day I am supposed to receive, by proxy, an honorary L.L.D. at the University of Kentucky. Victor Hammer will be there to receive it for me. I don't suppose I am inordinately elated. Here I sit and listen to the sound of a wren echoing in the pines and the mist. It is an Ember Day and I am hungry and I would be very pleased if a crow would fly along with a cup of coffee. I could use one. |
| 1963/06/29 | | Way of the Pilgrim |
Ltrs: SofC p. 176-77
| Personally I like the Way of the Pilgrim and it is a good stimulating book to read. The ideas are good, but we have to apply them to ourselves with due concern for our own situation. It seems to me that it is expecting too much to try to make our whole life center itself in the Jesus Prayer. And it is not necessary. I think that this repetition of the prayer is useful at certain times. I have recourse to it when I am plagued with distractions or half dead with sleep and can't do anything better. As for the breathing, I would get some idea of some good Yoga breathing, as described in a reliable book like Dechanet's Christian Yoga, and use that sometimes. But for the rest, the light of the Lord shines in our hearts always and all we need to do is to remind ourselves of it in the simplest possible way, and surrender to Him totally. If a simple ejaculation helps, well and good. Words do not always help. Just looking is often more helpful. |
| 1963/06/29 | Jean-Marie Dechanet o.s.b. | Christian Yoga |
Ltrs: SofC p. 176-77
| Personally I like the Way of the Pilgrim and it is a good stimulating book to read. The ideas are good, but we have to apply them to ourselves with due concern for our own situation. It seems to me that it is expecting too much to try to make our whole life center itself in the Jesus Prayer. And it is not necessary. I think that this repetition of the prayer is useful at certain times. I have recourse to it when I am plagued with distractions or half dead with sleep and can't do anything better. As for the breathing, I would get some idea of some good Yoga breathing, as described in a reliable book like Dechanet's Christian Yoga, and use that sometimes. But for the rest, the light of the Lord shines in our hearts always and all we need to do is to remind ourselves of it in the simplest possible way, and surrender to Him totally. If a simple ejaculation helps, well and good. Words do not always help. Just looking is often more helpful. |
| 1963/07/19 | Benedict of Nurcia | Rule |
Ltrs: WtoF p. 166
| The following are the questions, with Merton's answers: 1. Name the last three books you have read. The Platform Scripture of Hui Neng, translated by Wing Tsit Chen The Proslogion by St. Anselm of Canterbury A Different Drummer by William Melvin Kelley 2. Name the books you are reading now. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture by John Huizinga Ratio Verae Theologiae (The Real Meaning of Theology) by Erasmus The Historian and Character by David Knowles 4. Books that have influenced you. Poetic Works of William Blake Plays of Aeschylus and Sophocles Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas Sermons of Meister Eckhart De Doctrina Christiana, Confessions, and Sermons on Psalms of St. Augustine Rule of St. Benedict The Bhagavad-Gita The Imitation of Christ, etc. 5. Why have these books been an influence on you? These books and others like them have helped me to discover the real meaning of my life, and have made it possible for me to get out of the confusion and meaninglessness of an existence completely immersed in the needs and passivities fostered by a culture in which sales are everything. 6. Name a book everyone should read. Besides the Bible (taken for granted and not included above) and such classics as The Imitation of Christ, I would select a contemporary book which I consider to be of vital importance and which I think everyone should read at this time: The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin. 7. Why this book? This is the most forceful statement about a crisis that is of immediate importance to every American, and indirectly affects the whole world today. It is something that people have to know about. The Negro has been trying to make himself heard: in this book he succeeds. |
| 1963/07/19 | Eckhart | Meister Eckhart / Meister Eckhart ; a modern transl. by Raymond Bernard Blakney |
Ltrs: WtoF p. 166
| The following are the questions, with Merton's answers: 1. Name the last three books you have read. The Platform Scripture of Hui Neng, translated by Wing Tsit Chen The Proslogion by St. Anselm of Canterbury A Different Drummer by William Melvin Kelley 2. Name the books you are reading now. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture by John Huizinga Ratio Verae Theologiae (The Real Meaning of Theology) by Erasmus The Historian and Character by David Knowles 4. Books that have influenced you. Poetic Works of William Blake Plays of Aeschylus and Sophocles Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas Sermons of Meister Eckhart De Doctrina Christiana, Confessions, and Sermons on Psalms of St. Augustine Rule of St. Benedict The Bhagavad-Gita The Imitation of Christ, etc. 5. Why have these books been an influence on you? These books and others like them have helped me to discover the real meaning of my life, and have made it possible for me to get out of the confusion and meaninglessness of an existence completely immersed in the needs and passivities fostered by a culture in which sales are everything. 6. Name a book everyone should read. Besides the Bible (taken for granted and not included above) and such classics as The Imitation of Christ, I would select a contemporary book which I consider to be of vital importance and which I think everyone should read at this time: The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin. 7. Why this book? This is the most forceful statement about a crisis that is of immediate importance to every American, and indirectly affects the whole world today. It is something that people have to know about. The Negro has been trying to make himself heard: in this book he succeeds. |
| 1963/07/19 | P. Ladeuze | Essai sur le cenobitisme pakhômien |
Jnl 4 ('60-'63) p. 340
| Diligebat autem anachoresios plurimos, frequenter expetens solitudinem. Et illic dies in oratione persistens dominum supplicabat ut a tantis se fraudibus clementer eriperet. [He loved to go far into the desert, often seeking solitude. And there he spent his days in prayer, asking the Lord that in his mercy he would be delivered from all deception.] Vita S. Pachomii, C. II Charmed by the life of Pachomius-and have found much useful material in Ladenji's "Essai." Too many generalizations have falsified our view of Pachomian Cenobitism. |
| 1963/07/19 | Thomas a Kempis | Imitation of Christ |
Ltrs: WtoF p. 166
| The following are the questions, with Merton's answers: 1. Name the last three books you have read. The Platform Scripture of Hui Neng, translated by Wing Tsit Chen The Proslogion by St. Anselm of Canterbury A Different Drummer by William Melvin Kelley 2. Name the books you are reading now. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture by John Huizinga Ratio Verae Theologiae (The Real Meaning of Theology) by Erasmus The Historian and Character by David Knowles 4. Books that have influenced you. Poetic Works of William Blake Plays of Aeschylus and Sophocles Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas Sermons of Meister Eckhart De Doctrina Christiana, Confessions, and Sermons on Psalms of St. Augustine Rule of St. Benedict The Bhagavad-Gita The Imitation of Christ, etc. 5. Why have these books been an influence on you? These books and others like them have helped me to discover the real meaning of my life, and have made it possible for me to get out of the confusion and meaninglessness of an existence completely immersed in the needs and passivities fostered by a culture in which sales are everything. 6. Name a book everyone should read. Besides the Bible (taken for granted and not included above) and such classics as The Imitation of Christ, I would select a contemporary book which I consider to be of vital importance and which I think everyone should read at this time: The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin. 7. Why this book? This is the most forceful statement about a crisis that is of immediate importance to every American, and indirectly affects the whole world today. It is something that people have to know about. The Negro has been trying to make himself heard: in this book he succeeds. |
| 1964/01/12 | Irenee Hausherr | Solitude et vie contemplative d'après l'Hesychasme |
Ltrs: SofC p. 195
| First I want to thank you for your kindness in sending me the mimeograph of P. Hausherr's study on Hesychasm. It is really excellent and I profited much by reading it. I was able to use some of the material with the novices and now I have one of the young professed translating it. We will mimeograph the English translation and I think it will do a great deal of good in our American houses. |
| 1964/01/19 | Anselmus of Canterbury | Orationes et Meditationes |
Jnl 5 ('63-'65) p. 65
| Then this morning in Anselm's Meditations and Orations-I find his "Digne, certe, digne!" ["Fitting, certainly, fitting!"] (Med. 2). Anselm's meditations and prayers are musical compositions. He can use his themes without inhibition. Themes on which we are condemned to be inarticulate, for if we tried to say what he says we could not be authentic. Those forms have been worn out by tired monks and no longer say what he wanted them to say. Yet how close he comes to existentialist nausea for instance in prayer 8 (on St. John Baptist!). Yet there is always the hope, the presence of the compassionate Christ (not permitted to the existentialist!). I love Anselm. I love these prayers, though I could never attempt to use such language myself. |
| 1964/07/22 | Dame Margaret Gascoigne | Devotions |
Ltrs: SofC p. 222
| Today two books arrived, beautifully bound: the Spiritual Anker and the Treatise on Discretion. Thanks very much indeed. I will read them and take good care of them and send them back safely. Meanwhile I have received others, some time ago, and I don't remember having acknowledged them. I am very ashamed of myself. What I received was Dame Margaret Gascoigne which is excellent, and I have noted some excerpts that could be used. These will come to you when I have also thought of others from the other mss. Then there is the Catholic Record Society material, as well as Dame Barbara Constable's Considerations for Priests. These are very good but as they are more of a compilation I do not think we can use them, do you? |
| 1964/09/27 | Hans Urs von Balthasar | Herrlichkeit. Eine theologische Ästetik. |
Ltrs: SofC p. 241
| The wonderful package of books has arrived, and I am reading the first volume of Herrlichkeit, not without a little difficulty, but I think I am getting most of it. At any rate there are parts that make me very happy, even though I have to read slowly and can only do a few pages a day. Really I am most grateful, as this is exactly what I have been looking for: a truly contemplative theology, for which we have been starved for so many centuries (though of course there have been little intervals of refreshment and light with people like Scheeben). I think I am going to enjoy your second volume even more. I am so grateful to you for daring to launch out into this fruitio [enjoyment] and intellectus [understanding]. How can there really be any other theology? Actually, I see that the attraction of things like Buddhism today resides in the "hidden" sapiential quality which is absent from our purely "scientific" theology and Scripture study. Underneath all the apparent ambiguities of Buddhism about suffering (they do in some cases seek to avoid it) there is actually a deep wisdom and admiratio [wonder] at the mystery of truth and love which is attained only when suffering is fully accepted and faced. |
| 1964/11/17 | Louis Massignon | Opera Minora |
Jnl 5 ('63-'65) p. 166-67
| Massignon and Foucauld"”both converted to Christianity by the witness of Islam to the one living God. Someone wrote of Foucauld (and his devotion to the dead of Islam): "Mais pour un mystique les ames des morts comptent autant que celles des vivants; et sa vocation particulière etait de sanctifier l'Islam eternel (car ce qui a ete est pour l'eternite) en lui faisant donner un saint au Christianism" ["For a mystic the souls of the dead count as much as those of the living; and his particular vocation was to sanctify the eternal Islam-for that which has been is forever-in helping it to give a saint to Christianity"] (quoted by Massignon, Opera Minora, III, p. 775). "L'ascèse n'est pas un luxe solitaire nous parant pour Dieu mais la plus profonde oeuvre de misericorde: celle, qui guerit les coeurs brises par sa propre brisure et blessur" ["Asceticism is not a solitary luxury preparing us for God but the most profound act of mercy: that which heals broken hearts by its own breaks and wounds"] Massignon, Opera Minora, III, 804. |
| 1964/12/08 | | Cloud of Unknowing |
Ltrs: SofC p. 254
| "¦ In such solitude as I have now I have been renewing my contact with Lancelot Andrewes, not as a steady diet, but his precis for the evening are very wholesome and rich, and I am quite drawn to his spirit. But also to the other and more profound spirit in the English tradition, that of Lady Julian, the Cloud, etc. I have an interesting ms. from a Jesuit in Japan treating the Cloud in its relation to Zen. In fact I also met Dr. Suzuki this summer, and this was a helpful contact indeed, because he really understands what interior simplicity is all about and really lives it. That is the important thing, because without contact with living examples, we soon get lost or give out. |
| 1964/12/08 | Julian of Norwich | Revelations of Divine Love |
Ltrs: SofC p. 254
| "¦ In such solitude as I have now I have been renewing my contact with Lancelot Andrewes, not as a steady diet, but his precis for the evening are very wholesome and rich, and I am quite drawn to his spirit. But also to the other and more profound spirit in the English tradition, that of Lady Julian, the Cloud, etc. I have an interesting ms. from a Jesuit in Japan treating the Cloud in its relation to Zen. In fact I also met Dr. Suzuki this summer, and this was a helpful contact indeed, because he really understands what interior simplicity is all about and really lives it. That is the important thing, because without contact with living examples, we soon get lost or give out. |
| 1964/12/26 | Peter F. Anson | Call of the Desert |
Ltrs: SofC p. 257
| I think that even if a desert is formed (which is unlikely) without this basis of intelligent and open communication, it will not be practical. A desert merely isolated and directed "from abov" by people with narrow and fearful ideas will be stale from the start. It has to be alive and realistic. This requires open perspectives. And study. For a start, I recommend that you get hold of a book called The Call of the Desert by Peter Anson (I forget who publishes it, Helicon perhaps). This book surveys the whole field of the hermit life, and gives references to plenty of books about it. You should be acquainted with the literature, at least to some extent. But be careful not to let it just stir up your imagination and feelings. You have an objective job of studying to do, and you must keep it objective. There are problems to be recognized, historic solutions to be considered, matters of past legislation to be noted down for reference, and so on. Without this knowledge, any project that is drawn up will be merely an essay in imagination. |
| 1965/01/17 | William K. Everson o.p. | Tongs of Jeopardy / pseudonym: brother Antoninus |
Jnl 5 ('63-'65) p. 192
| In the monastery after dinner I played Brother Antoninus' record "The Tongs of Jeopardy" to the novices and some of the juniors. It is remarkably good-meditation on the Kennedy assassination. He was talking about his ideas on this when he was here and I was very struck by them then. They cannot be summed up simply as "Jungian." A remarkable and sensitive poetic insight into the state of the American mind-better than anything else I know (for instance how much deeper say than Paul Goodman's Growing Up Absurd which I have just recently read). More than Jungian, the "Tongs" meditation is deeply Buddhist, and the Cain idea, the drive to fratricide as the great weakness in the American psyche, is most impressive and I think accurate. Illtud Evans is coming to preach the retreat and I will talk to him about it. Am tempted to review it for Blackfriars. |
| 1965/04/16 | Lord Walter Northbourne | Religion in the modern world |
Jnl 5 ('63-'65) p. 229-30
| Marco Pallis had Lord [Walter] Northbourne send me his really excellent book Religion in the Modern World. Among many fine things he says this about tradition in art, religion, politics, sport, etc. The traditional constraints impose a vital unity, a hierarchical order of like with unlike, so that there is a final universality and wholeness in society and in the expression of man's spirit. Where this traditional principle is discarded, everything becomes individualized. But there has to be a semblance of unity nevertheless. This is sought by collectivization which, however, is not an order of like and unlike elements, but simply a grouping together of like with like. Or a seduction to superficial sameness, uniformity not unity. Within the superficial uniformity, civilization is segmented into "departments" out of contact with each other, but officially "interconnected." |
| 1965/04/17 | Lord Walter Northbourne | Religion in the modern world |
Jnl 5 ('63-'65) p. 231
| The last pages of Northbourne's book are remarkably good, and make clear the confusions that had given me trouble with the Schuon-Guinan line of thought. Northbourne is most insistent on not mixing up traditions, on not being syncretistic. On the great danger of pseudo-religious "nothingness" using a melange of Eastern and Western elements-worse still, disciplines. "The effectiveness of any single religion as a means of grace and a way of salvation is impaired or neutralized by its supplementation or dilution with anything that is alien to it" p. 101. He sees clearly that these pseudo-religious, pseudo-mystical movements, while claiming to be a reaction against materialism, are in fact only the last convolution of the profane spiral, and complete the whole work. "Anything that purports to be initiation and spiritual disciplines that have authentic spiritual roots and thus retain some of their power." Case of poor Joel Orent and his guru. Northbourne's last chapter is invaluable. |
| 1965/04/18 | Lord Walter Northbourne | Religion in the modern world |
Ltrs: WtoF p. 312-13
| I have just finished reading your book Religion in the Modern World. Since I did not want to send you a mere formal note of thanks, but wanted also to share my impressions with you, I have delayed writing about it until now. After a careful reading, spread out over some time (I have read the book a bit at a time), I believe that your book is exceptionally good. Certainly I am most grateful for the opportunity to read it, and needless to say I am very glad that Marco Pallis suggested that you send it to me. Not only is the book interesting, but I have found it quite salutary and helpful in my own case. It has helped me to organize my ideas at a time when we in the Catholic Church, and in the monastic Orders, are being pulled this way and that. Traditions of great importance and vitality are being questioned along with more trivial customs, and I do not think that those who are doing the questioning are always distinguished for their wisdom or even their information. I could not agree more fully with your principles and with your application of them. In particular, I am grateful for your last chapter. For one thing it clears up a doubt that had persisted in my mind, about the thinking of the Schuon-Guenon "school" (if one can use such a term) [an association of Sufi masters with whom Marco Pallis was associated], as well as about the rather slapdash ecumenism that is springing up in some quarters. It is most important first of all to understand deeply and live one's own tradition, not confusing it with what is foreign to it, if one is to seriously appreciate other traditions and distinguish in them what is close to one's own and what is, perhaps, irreconcilable with one's own. |
| 1965/10/03 | Thomas Trahern | Centuries, Poems and Thanksgivings |
Ltrs: HGL p. 518
| Now that I go to answer your letter I find that I have misplaced it, but I think most of the points are in my mind. But first of all thanks very much indeed for the two books. Of course I like [Thomas] Traherne very much; I have the Centuries. I will try to find a copy of an essay I did on the English mystics and send it along. I have asked someone to send more copies of the ones you asked for, and you ought to have them by now. The book by Fingarette looks particularly interesting. I am just getting into it and I can see that it will be stimulating and probably very helpful to me. |
| 1966/04/06 | Johannes Tauler | Book of the Poor in Spirit |
Ltrs: HGL p. 375
| In the hospital I have read a lot of Eckhart and am more and more convinced of his greatness. Before coming I went back to Kelley's translation of The Book of the Poor in Spirit. This is the kind of thing I am going to stay with now that I am "fre" and do not have to bother with nonsense that does not really interest me (politics). |
| 1966/04/10 | Eckhart | Meister Eckhart / Meister Eckhart ; a modern transl. by Raymond Bernard Blakney |
Jnl 6 ('66-'67) p. 38
| The best thing of all was lying reading Eckhart, or sitting up, when I finally could, copying sentences from the sermons that I can use if I write on him. It was this that saved me, and when I got back to the hermitage last evening to say the Easter offices everything else drained off and Eckhart remained as real. The rest was like something I had imagined. |
| 1966/06/30 | Meister Eckhart | Beati pauperes spiritus. English. Meister Eckhart's sermon on Beati pauperes spiritu / (Eckhart von Hochheim) ; transl. by Raymond Bernard Blakney |
Jnl 6 ('66-'67) p. 92
| "Blessed are the pure in heart who leave everything to God now as they did before theyever existed." Eckhart [from the tractate Von der Abgeschiedenheit]. This is what I have to get back to. It is coming to the surface again. As Eckhart was my life-raft in the hospital, so now also he seems the best link to restore continuity: my obedience to God begetting His love in me (which has never stopped!). |
| 1966/08/07 | Johannes Tauler | Book of the Poor in Spirit |
Jnl 6 ('66-'67) p. 113
| I walked out in a broad open field in the East Farm (Linton's) and watched the high cool clouds, and said aloud several times the word "Revolution" to see how it sounded. Then I read in the Book of the Poor in Spirit [by Johannes Tauler] how by many deaths we must come to see God. |
| 1966/11/18 | Jean Leclercq o.s.b. | Chances de la spiritualite occidentale |
Ltrs: SofC p. 321
| Yesterday your Chances de la Spiritualite Occidentale arrived and I want to thank you very much for it. Though I have seen most of the articles, in fact all of them, in one form or other, it will be a pleasure to go through them all together. But of course I must above all thank you for pages 28"”31, clearer to me in French than they were in the German version. Thanks for having the courage to defend someone that most people apparently don't know what to make of. That is an element of my solitude, but I do not grudge you bringing me this kind of welcome company. The desert is never absolute, or should not be! Seriously, it is a consolation to find oneself after all part of the Catholic Church and not excommunicated without appeal as Dom Calati and others would apparently want me to be. Many thanks for your charity and, I think, your objectivity too. It helps me to evaluate my own life and my own position in the Church. I am also very grateful to P. Von Balthasar for his generous introduction, or rather postface, to the little selection of my poems. The selection was good, the translations seem to me to be very well done, and I am happy with the whole book. With you and him behind me I can feel a little more confidenc"”not that I have yet made myself notable for a lack of it. Perhaps I have always had too much. |
| 1967/01/07 | Jean Leclercq o.s.b. | Chances de la spiritualite occidentale |
Ltrs: SofC p. 326
| Some useful remarks on your subject have been made by Dom Jean Leclercq, O.S.B., in his book Chances de la Spiritualite Occidentale, pp. 28-31. Also by P. Hans Urs von Balthasar in his postface to his German edition of some selected poems of mine. The book is called Grazias Haus and was published by Joannes Verlag, Einsiedeln, Switzerland, last year. |
| 1967/03/20 | Dag Hammarskjöld | Markings |
Ltrs: RtoJ p. 346
| Thanks for your nice letter. I will give you what help I can. First of all, I have read Markings with great interest and sympathy. One of the greatest bonds between myself and Dag H. is a common interest in Meister Eckhart whom he quotes very frequently. I do not quote Eckhart as much but I use others of the same school, like Tauler, and I get the same sort of material from St. John of the Cross. In my latest book, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander which you can probably get from your library, you may find other material similar to his. I would also suggest Seeds of Contemplation and the new edition of same, New Seeds. |
| 1967/04/07 | Irenee Hausherr | Solitude et vie contemplative d'après l'Hesychasme |
Jnl 6 ('66-'67) p. 213
| Hausherr brings out the fact that Athonite Hesychasm precisely bears on solitude and anachoresis as essential for inner quiet: that the belief that one can preserve hesychia in crowds and action is reproved. |
| 1967/04/15 | Johannes Tauler | Book of the Poor in Spirit |
Jnl 6 ('66-'67) p. 218
| On the other hand I know where my roots really are - in the mystical tradition, not in the active and anxious secular city business. Not that I don't have any obligation to society. Etc. But - [am] reading Mircea Eliade and a book on Ibn al Arabi, and the Book of the Poor in Spirit again. |
| 1968/07/01 | Friedrich Heiler | Prayer: A Study in the History and Psychology of Religion |
Jnl 7 ('67-'68) p. 136
| Very hot. One of the hottest days I can remember here. Clammy and stuffy"”but with a breez"”even though hot"”in the woods. I spent part of the afternoon there, beginning Heiler's book on Prayer, which I find very moving and true. This is a good time to read it, as I hope to make July at least relatively a time of retreat, silence and prayer |
| 1968/07/09 | Darcy O'Brien | Conscience of James Joyce |
Jnl 7 ('67-'68) p. 140
| Went and lay down dopey for ½ hour, then got up and looked for something new. So Darcy O'Brien on The Conscience of Joyce. Not a marvelous book itself (a bit obvious"”and limited perspectives), but Joyce himself woke me up again and now I am very involved in it. Dedalus's aesthetics. The essentially contemplative vocation of joyce. His revolt is that of the contemplative and creative man called to self-transcendence and "held down" by the prosaic, legalistic, provincial Catholicism of the Irish middle class"”the bourgeois Catholicism of the 19th century"”which continues in another form in the 20th"”liberal, pragmatic, pedestrian, "practical," exalting matter and science, etc. and still putting down contemplation as "gnostic," "unchristian," enemies of the imagination, but not really earthy either. O'Brien tends to give Joyce this same stereotyped business: "rejection of the faith" (the girl standing in the water), "hatred of life." (How can he say such a thing? Surely he'll take that back.) |