This file contains letters to or from unknown nuns or religious sisters. Merton may have used the salutation, "Dear Sister", "Dear Reverend Mother", etc. For those listed with a first name, i.e. Sr. Maria, see "Unidentified First Names". The letters are arranged chronologically.
If the person in correspondence with Merton has full text records in the Merton Center Digital Collections, there will be a numeric link to them below.
This Record Sub-Group is not divided into Series and is arranged chronologically.
Click icons for links: ✓="Published | Library Record", ✉="Scanned" | 🗷="Scanned, Viewable Only at Merton Center"
| # | Date | From/To | First Lines | Pub ✓ | Notes |
| | y/m/d | Merton | | Scan ✉ | |
| 1. |
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 Religious Art in the Twentieth Century
«detailed view» |
| 2. |
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
«detailed view» |
| 3. |
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, |
✓ |
[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"
«detailed view» |
| 4. |
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
«detailed view» |
| 5. |
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
«detailed view» |
| 6. |
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
«detailed view» |
| 7. |
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. |
✓ |
[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 Way of Perfection on the "Our Father" and the "Living Flame" of St. John of the Cross
«detailed view» |
| 8. |
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 |
|
«detailed view» |
| 9. |
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
«detailed view» |
| 10. |
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 |
|
«detailed view» |
| 11. |
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
«detailed view» |
| 12. |
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
«detailed view» |
| 13. |
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
«detailed view» |
| 14. |
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 The School of Charity?) 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
«detailed view» |
| 15. |
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]
«detailed view» |
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