The Seven Storey Mountain

Last evening, I went to a book study group that was held at the Amidons. It had been formed as a sort of spin-off from Contemplative Prayer at the Guilford Church, mostly at the initiative of Patty Meyer, and includes six or seven others. The book was Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain. I had never read it before. Indeed I had never read much of Merton at all. TSSM is called "An Autobiography of Faith" and tells in pretty riveting detail the story of his early life and his formation, ultimately, as a Trappist monk. A key word for him is "vocation." This is the story of his struggle to define, discover, accept, find joy and peace in the vocation of being a contemplative monk. It was not easy. Merton is a fantastic writer (that could have been his vocation, and in a way was, but also wasn't, and the tension between "writer" and "contemplative monk" probably ran through his life after he entered the monastary). Whatever you think about his belief system, you (at least I) was pulled along by his writing. The book obviously touched everyone in the group and raised a lot of questions: e.g., what does it mean to love God? What does it mean to pray for someone? But also, "Why has this book sold millions of copies?" For me it raised the question "Do I have a vocation at this advanced stage of my life?" "If so, what is it?" Merton himself gives a kind of answer to that question himself: "This means, in practice, that there is only one vocation. Whether you teach, or live in the cloister, or nurse the sick, whether you are in religion or out of it, married or single, no matter who you are or what you are, (and I would add - no matter how old you are), you are called the the summit of perfection, you are called to a deep interior life, perhaps even to mystical prayer, and to pass the fruits of your contemplation on to others. And if you cannot do so by words, then by example." (Seven Storey Mountain, p. 458). I also brought to the discussion an article I found in the Christian Century by Cassidy Hall, a filmmaker who created a documentary on Thomas Merton. She is wondering if it is time to "let go of Thomas Merton." She writes, "Merton, as a White cis man and vowed monastic in a patriarchal church perpetuates damaging exclusivity alongside his wisdom." So there is another perspective. Her film is titled Day of a Stranger. All this certainly gives one food for thought!

Thomas Merton (1915-1968)