Thomas Merton Quotes


Contemplation is life itself, fully awake, fully active, and fully aware that it is alive. It is spiritual wonder. It is spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life, of being. It is gratitude for life, for awareness, and for being. It is a vivid realization of the fact that life and being in us proceed from an invisible, transcendent, and infinitely abundant Source.


Citations

Merton, Thomas. New Seeds of Contemplation. New Directions Publishing, 1961, p. 1.

Related Quotes

Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton
  • Born: January 31, 1915
  • Died: December 10, 1968
  • Nationality: American
  • Profession: Trappist Monk, Author

Thomas Merton OCSO was an American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, mystic, poet, social activist, and scholar of comparative religion. On May 26, 1949, he was ordained to the priesthood and given the name "Father Louis". He was a member of the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, near Bardstown, Kentucky, living there from 1941 to his death.