| Series | Date | Type | To/From | First Lines | Pub | Full Text | Notes |
| | 1963/11/08 | TL[c] | from Merton to "Dear Sister" | I have read your letter carefully and it seems to me to be quite reasonable. Your spirit is good | |
| [religious sister and artist] questions religious vocation - wonders if her vocation hampers her art / Merton asks whether vocation hinders art or gives freedom and structure to do art - advises her to stay with community and continue discernment / recommends P.R. Régamey's <i>Religious Art in the Twentieth Century</i> |
| | 1964/01/11 | TL[c] | from Merton to "Dear Sister" | Just a word in answer to your letter: I haven't time for much. There is really not much that can | |
| malformation in the religious life in the name of "mortification of nature" / need for development past current limited ideology and spirituality / advises her to read the New Testament and focus on the Epistles of St. Paul and St. John |
| | 1964/12/30 | TL[c] | from Merton to "Dear Sister" | It must be about a month since you wrote your letter. It got here and got buried in the pile, | Yes |
| [WTF, pp. 194-195] need for prayer for renewal (aggiornamento) of religious life / "avoid forms of spirituality and piety that make us too aware of ourselves and of our precious interior lives and inner experiences" - "be free in the forgetfulness of self" - simultaneously do not plunge oneself too much into work and the "rat race" |
| | 1965/01/16 | TL[c] | from Merton to "Dear Sister" | Naturally I cannot give you personal direction in the matter of your changing to the Carmelites, | |
| some advice about changing to a cloistered and contemplative order / problems in all orders and Carmelites might not solve all problems / if she feels the call, she should not feel she is being selfish in wanting the contemplative life |
| | 1966/08/30 | TL[c] | from Merton to "Dear Sister" | About the question of obedience: I would say that the obedience of all religious is essentially | |
| monastic obedience / new views on greater freedoms and the increased personal responsibility that accompanies greater freedom and less dependence on a superior |
| | 1966/12/12 | TL[c] | from Merton to "Dear Sister" (Carmelite) | Many thanks for your good prayers. I appreciate them. Either day will do. I count the one when | |
| [from a Carmelite nun] Merton's anniversaries at Gethsemani Abbey / response to question about whether contemplatives should know about the problems and sufferings of the world - general, not specific knowledge of problems - unity with suffering through prayer - do not get caught up in every detail of the news |
| | 1967/01/20 | TL[c] | from Merton to "Dear Sister" | I am glad you wrote to be [sic] about that prayer problem. It was necessary that you should. | Yes |
| [to a Carmelite nun - probably of the Cleveland Carmel - WTF, pp. 196-197] Merton responds to the news of a retreat master priest who caused this nun to question her current vocation of prayer / recommends section of St. Theresa's <i>Way of Perfection</i> on the "Our Father" and the "Living Flame" of St. John of the Cross |
| | 1967/03/10 | TL[c] | from Merton to "Chere Soeur" | J'ai reçu votre bonne lettre. N'ayez pas peur. La crise même vous aidera a vous abandonner de plus | |
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| | 1967/04/13 | TL[c] | from Merton to "Dear Sister" | I very much sympathize with your "agree-with-protest" letter. First I think that you-- like all | |
| many in religious orders caught between "upper and nether millstones" - superiors "preaching the old line hell fire obey the rule, and underneath the new revolution" - exploitation by the mass media of dispute / cleaving to the middle while leaving some room to be radical - not writing for the Saturday Evening Post |
| | 1967/06/07 | TL[c] | from Merton to "Dear Sister" | The advice I gave you last time was middle of the road, and it is what I myself follow as it is | |
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| | 1967/11/06 | TL[c] | from Merton to "Dear Sister" | It is certainly true that much of the current discussion that is going on is wasted or beside | |
| religious life - acceptance of community life along with solitude |
| | 1968/07/01 | TL[c] | from Merton to "Dear Sister" | It is not easy for me to answer a letter like yours about a third person whom I don't know. | |
| responding to a situation of another religious sister in the correspondent's community who plans to leave - on helping her make an honest decision based on what is right for her |
| | 1968/08/03 | TLS | from Merton to "Dear Sister" (Carmelite) | It is quite understandable that as a cloistered Carmelite you should have a desire for greater | |
| [from a cloistered Carmelite nun] wants greater solitude - unlikely to get permission with the Carmelites to live as a complete hermit - try to find more solitude within her community, but if not, look into the new groups of women hermits |
| | 1968/09/02 | TL[c] | from Merton to "Dear Sisters" | Thanks for your letter and for the opportunity to look over your proposal for an experimental | |
| [Patrick Hart's copy labled "Sister C." from ms. (of <i>The School of Charity</i>?) pp. 751-2] experimental contemplative community - benefits and drawbacks of either working from within established orders or creating something completely new / many current experiments but problem of little coordination / Sr. Immaculate Heart in Indiana / problem of solid prayer life and lack of discipline in "free" communities |
| | undated/no/no | HCS | to Merton | Pour vous aussi nos voeuf et nos priéres pour un Noël béne, un apostolat fecond et une bonne année. | |
| [signed by a number of religious sisters (from Haiti?) / verso of card shows maps drawn of Haiti and Vietnam - i.e., the sisters in Haiti are praying for peace in Vietnam] |
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