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Meditations with Matthew Fox
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Thomas Merton on Repose, Silence,
and Advent |
Today, December 10, is the anniversary of Thomas Merton’s entering the monastery in 1940 and also the 54th anniversary of his untimely death. |
About the latter, significant research recently has pretty much concluded that he died a martyr for peace.* My own investigations came to the same conclusion, indeed, they culminated with my meeting a person a few months after my book on Merton came out who worked with the CIA as a young man in southeast Asia at the time and I asked him, “Did you guys kill Thomas Merton?” and he answered: “Yes we did. And I have spent the last 40 years of my life cleansing my soul from what I did working for the CIA as
a young man.” | |
Merton had much to say about a healthy via negativa and therefore the season of Advent that we find ourselves
in. One of his definitions of contemplation is this: “Contemplation is essentially a listening in silence, an expectancy.” Surely Advent is both an expectancy and a listening in silence. It is Merton who tells us to “love winter when the plant says nothing.” Nature is undergoing darkness and solitude and silence this time of the year after all. “Be in the midst of nature!” he advises. “The woods and nature should be part of your
solitude.” |
| He elaborates on solitude this way: If you see a heavenly light
I, Solitude, am your professor!
I go before you into emptiness,
Raise strange sounds for your new mornings, Opening the windows |
Of your innermost apartment…
For I, solitude, am thine own self:
I, Nothingness, am thy All.
I, Silence, am thy Amen! Here Merton invokes the God of darkness:
My love is darkness!
Only in the Void
Are all ways one:
Only in the night are all the lost
Found.
In my ending is my meaning.
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*See Hugh Turly & David Martin, The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton: An Investigation; and John Smelcer, Enacting Love: How Thomas Merton Died for Peace; and
Fox, A Way To God, pp. 141f. Adapted from Matthew Fox, A Way To God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey, pp. 68-71, 73. Banner Image: “Greeting the dawn.” Photo by George Coletrain on Unsplash |
Queries for Contemplation Do you find yourself expectant and listening in silence at this time? Do you sense others are doing the same? What are we expectant about? |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, please click HERE
to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
A Way to God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey
In A Way to God, Fox explores Merton’s pioneering work in interfaith, his essential teachings on mixing contemplation and action, and how the vision of Meister Eckhart profoundly influenced Merton in what Fox calls his Creation Spirituality journey.
“This wise and
marvelous book will profoundly inspire all those who love Merton and want to know him more deeply.” — Andrew Harvey, author of The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism | |
See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE |
Join Matthew Fox as he leads a new course hosted by The Shift Network: Answer the Call for an Uncommon Life Through the Mystical Teachings of St. Hildegard. New 16-module video training with two live Q&A events starts Monday,
November 28, 12:00 PM PT. Register HERE. Join Matthew Fox for the monthly Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, discussing Christian Mystics: 365 Readings and Meditations. Thursday, December 15, 4:00pm-6:00pm PT Register HERE. Join Robert Holden and Matthew Fox for A WINTER OF IMAGINATION – a mystical journey in three 75-minute webinars that reveal the spiritual invitation and deeper meaning of Advent,
the Solstice, and Christmas time. Thursdays 12/15 ("Advent for Mystics"), 12/19 ("A Solstice Meditation"), and 12/22 ("Soul of Christmas"), 12 pm PT/3 pm ET/8 pm UK. Register HERE. Creation Spirituality Conversations |
In a podcast episode with the Earth and Spirit Center, Matthew Fox reflects on how creation-centered spirituality, and the marriage of the divine feminine and sacred masculine, can help us respond with hope
to the troubles of our apocalyptic times. Listen HERE. | |
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