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glowbird's review against another edition
3.0
The book format is very beautiful and the illustrations are lovely. The prayers move from intensely personal to completely general. An interesting volume.
aprillikesbooks's review against another edition
5.0
This book is really beautiful. I read it much too quickly! This is definitely one to be savored on the next read.
allisonjpmiller's review against another edition
4.0
Merton is one of my favorite spiritual writers. This is a collection of very candid, beautiful, and revealing prayers. I tried to make it my morning devotional for a time, but found myself turning pages too quickly for that. Glad I own this one.
lucasmiller's review against another edition
4.0
A volume of prayers and drawings gathered from a number of sources. Most of the prayers are previously published, many of the draws were first published here. This has sat on my desk for close to a year. Occasionally glanced at and dipped into. In the past two weeks, I've read the second half of it in earnest. It is quiet and intimate. Less apologetic than some of the other Merton I've read. The final section with a number of prayers written for acquaintances (Robert Lax, Dorothy Day, etc.) are particularly moving, exhibiting some of Merton's humor as well as his fear and trembling. The final selection from the end of Merton's life while he was in Asia feel almost out of place, but are still vital to any larger understanding of Merton's development. Not where I would start, but if you like Merton, there is much here.
leebill's review against another edition
5.0
I had no idea of Mertons Poetry. to read this is to rest in prayer without accomplishment. Wonderful
djoshuva's review
4.0
“I no longer desire to see anything that implies a distance between You and me.” (19)
“O Lord, how joyful and happy must they be who, when they
come to consider their own selves, find in themselves nothing remarkable whatever. Not only do they not attract attention outside themselves, but now they no longer have any desires or selfish interests to attract their own attentíon. They remark no virtues; they are saddened by no huge sins; they see only their own unremarkable weakness and nothingness but a nothingness that is filled obscurely, not with themselves, but with Your love, O God! They are poor in spirit who possess within themselves the kíngdomn of heaven because they are no longer remarkable even to themselves. But in them shines God's light and they themselves, and all who see it, glorify You O God!” (25)
“Save me from my own, private, poisonous urge to change everything, to act without reason, to move for movement's sake, to unsettle everythíng that You have ordained.
Let me rest in Your will and be silent. Then the light of Your joy will warm my life. Its fire will burn in my heart and shíne
for Your glory. This is what I live for. Amen, amen.” (53)
“Let grace come and let this world pass away,
Jesus, You Who are living in my exhausted heart.”
(65)
“Is ít true that my motives have meant nothing? Is it true that all my desires were an illusion?
While I am asking questions that You do not answer, You ask me a question that is so simple that I cannot answer it. I do not even understand the question.” (75)
“But there is a greater comfort in the substance of silence than in the answer to a question. Eternity is in the present.
Eternity is in the palm of the hand. Eternity ís a seed of fire whose sudden roots break barriers that keep my heart from being an abyss.” (89)
“O Lord my God, where have I been sleeping? VWhat have I been doing? How slowly l awaken once again to the barrenncss of my life and its confusion. You will forgive me if it is often that way--I do not mean it to be. How little faith there has been in me-hovw inert have been my hours of solitude, how my time has been wasted. You will forgive me if next week, too, my tíme is all wasted and I am once again in confusion. But at least this afternoon, sittíng on a boulder among the birches, I thought with compunction of Your love and Your kingdom. And again tonight, by the gatchouse, I thought of the hope You have planted in our hearts and of the Kingdom of Heaven that I have
done so little to gain for myself and for others.” (103)
“Almost everything is ashes. What I have prized the most is ashes. What I have attended to least is, perhaps, a little solid.” (121)
“ A Prayer to Dorothy Day
O Dorothy, I think of you and the beat people and the ones with nothing and the poor in virtue, the very poor, the ones no one can respect. I am not worthy to say I love all of you. Intercede for me, a stuffed shirt in a place of stuffed shirts and a big dumb phony, who has tried to be respectable and has succeeded. What a deception! I know, of course, that you are respected, too, but you have a right to be. You didn't jump into the most respectable possible situation and then tell everyone about it. I am worried about all this, but I am not beating myself over the head. I just think that, for the love of God, I should say it, and that, for the love of God, you should pray for me.” (159)
“A Prayer to Mary Luke Tobin
Pray for me to be a real good hermit and listen to the word of God and respond like a man. That is what it really involves: simply to stand on one's feet before one's Father and reply to Him in the Spirit. This busincss about replying to the Father in the Spirit may sound like big talk but I don't mean it that way. "In the Spirit,) in any context I know of, means flat on your face. How one can stand on one’s own feet and be flat on one’s face at the same time is a mystery I will have to try to work out by living it.” (167)
“O silence, golden zero
Unsetting sun
Love winter when the plant says nothing” (183)
“O Lord, how joyful and happy must they be who, when they
come to consider their own selves, find in themselves nothing remarkable whatever. Not only do they not attract attention outside themselves, but now they no longer have any desires or selfish interests to attract their own attentíon. They remark no virtues; they are saddened by no huge sins; they see only their own unremarkable weakness and nothingness but a nothingness that is filled obscurely, not with themselves, but with Your love, O God! They are poor in spirit who possess within themselves the kíngdomn of heaven because they are no longer remarkable even to themselves. But in them shines God's light and they themselves, and all who see it, glorify You O God!” (25)
“Save me from my own, private, poisonous urge to change everything, to act without reason, to move for movement's sake, to unsettle everythíng that You have ordained.
Let me rest in Your will and be silent. Then the light of Your joy will warm my life. Its fire will burn in my heart and shíne
for Your glory. This is what I live for. Amen, amen.” (53)
“Let grace come and let this world pass away,
Jesus, You Who are living in my exhausted heart.”
(65)
“Is ít true that my motives have meant nothing? Is it true that all my desires were an illusion?
While I am asking questions that You do not answer, You ask me a question that is so simple that I cannot answer it. I do not even understand the question.” (75)
“But there is a greater comfort in the substance of silence than in the answer to a question. Eternity is in the present.
Eternity is in the palm of the hand. Eternity ís a seed of fire whose sudden roots break barriers that keep my heart from being an abyss.” (89)
“O Lord my God, where have I been sleeping? VWhat have I been doing? How slowly l awaken once again to the barrenncss of my life and its confusion. You will forgive me if it is often that way--I do not mean it to be. How little faith there has been in me-hovw inert have been my hours of solitude, how my time has been wasted. You will forgive me if next week, too, my tíme is all wasted and I am once again in confusion. But at least this afternoon, sittíng on a boulder among the birches, I thought with compunction of Your love and Your kingdom. And again tonight, by the gatchouse, I thought of the hope You have planted in our hearts and of the Kingdom of Heaven that I have
done so little to gain for myself and for others.” (103)
“Almost everything is ashes. What I have prized the most is ashes. What I have attended to least is, perhaps, a little solid.” (121)
“ A Prayer to Dorothy Day
O Dorothy, I think of you and the beat people and the ones with nothing and the poor in virtue, the very poor, the ones no one can respect. I am not worthy to say I love all of you. Intercede for me, a stuffed shirt in a place of stuffed shirts and a big dumb phony, who has tried to be respectable and has succeeded. What a deception! I know, of course, that you are respected, too, but you have a right to be. You didn't jump into the most respectable possible situation and then tell everyone about it. I am worried about all this, but I am not beating myself over the head. I just think that, for the love of God, I should say it, and that, for the love of God, you should pray for me.” (159)
“A Prayer to Mary Luke Tobin
Pray for me to be a real good hermit and listen to the word of God and respond like a man. That is what it really involves: simply to stand on one's feet before one's Father and reply to Him in the Spirit. This busincss about replying to the Father in the Spirit may sound like big talk but I don't mean it that way. "In the Spirit,) in any context I know of, means flat on your face. How one can stand on one’s own feet and be flat on one’s face at the same time is a mystery I will have to try to work out by living it.” (167)
“O silence, golden zero
Unsetting sun
Love winter when the plant says nothing” (183)
prufrog's review against another edition
3.0
I just love how Merton is constantly bogged down by his material desires in his heartfelt and intense quest for god. He seems like a pretty self aware person who prides his writing but is constantly reminding himself to not be prideful and live for his God.
I'm agnostic but I could relate with his constant inner turmoil and startling honesty with which he writes. Some of it was kinda boring to me (maybe because I don't really care for traditional Christian sermon style idk what you call them) but he was indeed a skilful writer. Hope he found what he wanted in life.
I'm agnostic but I could relate with his constant inner turmoil and startling honesty with which he writes. Some of it was kinda boring to me (maybe because I don't really care for traditional Christian sermon style idk what you call them) but he was indeed a skilful writer. Hope he found what he wanted in life.
thecuriosityhourpodcast's review
Nice quick little read. It's good to get in the mind of one who spends so much time steeped in the monastic life.
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