Notes on Merton prose from another viewpoint

I really love this stream of consciousness poem. Merton takes all of the little routines and hierarchies and internal dialog of Catholic monastic life, and pokes fun at them while, at the same time, he elevates them to the level of sacred ritual. There is something profoundly honest about this poem... a playful, unadorned bluntness that is both frank and humble.

Each one can sit at table with his own lemon, and mind his own conscience.

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Thomas Merton was a Catholic monk and mystic who was a key figure in opening up a dialog between the spiritual traditions of East and West. He himself studied many Eastern spiritual practices deeply, from Zen meditation to Hindu yogic philosophy.

1

Each one shall sit at table with his own cup and spoon, and with his own repentance. Each one's own business shall be his most important affair, and provide his own remedies.
They have neglected bowl and plate.
Have you a wooden fork?
Yes, each monk has a wooden fork as well as a potato.

2
Each one shall wipe away tears with his own saint, when three bells hold in store a hot afternoon. Each one is supposed to mind his own heart, with its conscience, night and morning.
Another turn on the wheel: ho hum! And observe the Abbot!
Time to go to bed in a straw blanket.

3
Plenty of bread for everyone between prayers and the psalter: will you recite another?
Merci, and Miserere.
Always mind both the clock and the Abbot until eternity.
Miserere.

4
Details of the Rule are all liquid and solid. What canon was the first to announce regimentation before us? Mind the step on the way down!
Yes, I dare say you are right, Father. I believe you; I believe you.
I believe it is easier when they have ice water and even a lemon.
Each one can sit at table with his own lemon, and mind his own conscience.

5
Can we agree that the part about the lemon is regular?
In any case, it is better to have sheep than peacocks, and cows rather than a chained leopard says Modest, in one of his proverbs.
The monastery, being owner of a communal rowboat, is the antechamber of heaven.
Surely that ought to be enough.

6
Each one can have some rain after Vespers on a hot afternoon, but ne quid nimis, or the purpose of the Order will be forgotten.
We shall send you hyacinths and a sweet millennium.
Everything the monastery provides is very pleasant to see and to sell for nothing.
What is baked smells fine. There is a sign of God on every leaf that nobody sees in the garden. The fruit trees are there on purpose, even when no one is looking. Just put the apples in the basket.
In Kentucky there is also room for a little cheese.
Each one shall fold his own napkin, and neglect the others.

7
Rain is always very silent in the night, under such gentle cathedrals.
Yes, I have taken care of the lamp, Miserere.
Have you a patron saint, and an angel?
Thank you. Even though the nights are never dangerous, I have one of everything.

 

At sunrise I ponder what more can there be for it all was and what will be is already....i sit today in thanksfullness and all else dissolves quickly with all that happened on the cross and I am left with just thanksfullness and a heart filled of god. My prayer are may it always be so... for all mankind and centerueed beings.... amen

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“Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Prayer

  Lord, we should not give thanks for everything that happens to us, but in everything.  We don’t give thanks for disease, illnesses, etc., but we give thanks for Your presence during those trying times and the good that You will bring from them.  You work everything for our good and Your glory, so we give thanks to You in everything! 

Amen

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Rilke

 if you suspect that Christ was deluded by his yearning and Muhammad deceived by his pride – and if you are terrified to feel that even now he does not exist, even at this moment when we are talking about him – what justifies you then, if he never existed, in missing him like someone who has passed away and in searching for him as though he were lost?

Why don’t you think of him as the one who is coming, who has been approaching from all eternity, the one who will someday arrive, the ultimate fruit of a tree whose leaves we are? What keeps you from projecting his birth into the ages that are coming into existence, and living your life as a painful and lovely day in the history of a great pregnancy? Don’t you see how everything that happens is again and again a beginning, and couldn’t it be His beginning, since, in itself, starting is always so beautiful? If he is the most perfect one, must not what is less perfect precede him, so that he can choose himself out of fullness and superabundance? Must he not be the last one, so that he can include everything in himself, and what meaning would we have if he whom we are longing for has already existed?

Matthee 6-8

God knows what you need before you ask him"

And linear time is earth time so maybe the gift already was. Shall we not say a greatest glory of love, of spirit, of birth already was and your blessed with a knowing, must the veils burn off thru a suffering that bring us only closer to you, only but a heart whose human being can receive more light, 

Oh lord how the suffering blessed me with awful grace to know it has already ended on the cross so now I can live.

God is great

God is good

And in Christ's name I humbly await your calling,. Annoint me, find me as I bow in waiting only...

I pray as Solomon prayed lord let it be but knowledge of you that I am in you and u are in me that I pray for this existance to be but worthy as servant, Christ's teaching the body and blood I east and drink to be reborn in spirit, send my spirit thru the winds in thy will, not my will and I will be blessed in you.

Amen

And in the eastern religions one might reflect- All events are empty by virtue of their empty essence;  all events are immaculately pure in their origin;  all events are all-embracing clear light;  all events transcend suffering spontaneously;  all events are manifestly perfect -and who are we to judge what is good and what is bad simply thru the effects of how they balance passions...:)