The poem For My Brother: Reported Missing in Action, 1943 on page 444, by Thomas Merton, from The Collected Poems of Thomas Merton. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. Copyright © 1944 by Our Lady of Gethsemani Monastery. The poem Song for Our Lady of Cobre on page 310 by Thomas Merton, from The Collected Poems of Thomas Merton. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.įor information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016. ShannonĬopyright renewed 1976 by the Trustees of the Merton Legacy TrustĪll rights reserved. Note to the Reader copyright © 1998 by William H. Introduction copyright © 1998 by Robert Giroux Merton's draft number came up, but he failed a physical at first and was in the process of entering the monastery by his second call.

Much of the experience occurs in the build-up to World War II and in the early days of United States involvement in the war. This well-regarded work influences lives of protestants and Catholics seeking a greater intimacy with God. We also learn about God and man's relationship to him. Along the way, we learn a lot about Merton's life and about contemplation. He visited a more urban Trappist monastery, but found his call to Gethsemani. His experience there was profound, but back with the Franciscans in New York, he found himself wanting more. He remembered his friend's visit to the silent Trappist Gethsemane monastery in Kentucky and applied for a retreat there. The Franciscan order he chose cost him very little. He quickly realized that he really wanted something which would require sacrifice. Thomas Merton, orphaned by his college years, studied at Columbia and decided to take holy orders.

The seven storey mountain