The Comedian
05-03-2010, 02:57 PM
No Man Is an Island is collection of short, spiritual essays that often (but not always) revolve around monastic life. The author, Thomas Merton, was a Trappist Monk living at the Abbey of Gethsemani when he wrote this book.
Here is picture of Merton:
http://slowmuse.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/primary-merton.jpg
And here is a picture of the Abbey of Gethsemani:
http://www.urbandharma.org/G3/images/jpeg/AbbeyByAir1.jpg
The topic of each essay almost inevitably revolves around a single or group of virtues. "Love Can Be Kept Only by Being Given Away," "Asceticism and Sacrifice," "The Measure of Charity," "Mercy," "The Inward Solitude," and "Silence" are some of the titles of the essays in this volume.
Each essay follows a general pattern of defining the principle virtue and showing how one can develop the virtue on a spiritual trajectory from ignorance to understanding, to philosophical understanding, to application, to theological understanding, to theological application. I'll admit that I'm not a spiritual dogmatist, so the latter sections of these essays, when Merton ties the virtue into the beliefs of the Catholic church were less interesting to me than the earlier sections.
But I really enjoyed this little book: Merton's style and honesty are fresh and vital. His prose calming. I came to his page hoping for a drink of spiritual spring water. And I wasn't disappointed.
And while this probably wasn't what Merton intended, it was his beautiful writing and inquiry into understanding the virtues that create a calm soul that, to me, were the most meditative and spiritually refreshing. Here are some of the many gems to be found in No Man Is an Island:
On the search for meaning . . . .
Our life, as individual persons and as members of a perplexed and struggling race, provokes us with the evidence that it must have meaning.
That freedom must have purpose. . .
Conscience is the soul of freedom, its eyes, its energy, its life. Without conscience, freedom never knows what to do with itself. And a rational being who does not know what to do with himself finds the tedium of life unbearable. Just as love does not find its fulfillment merely in loving blindly, so freedom wastes away when it merely "acts freely" without any purpose.
That love of humanity must be rooted in something more than abstraction. . . .
Do not ask me to love my brother merely in the name of an abstraction --"society," the "human race," the "common good." Do not tell me that I ought to love him because we are both "social animals." These things are so much less than the good that is in us that they are not worth to be invoked as motives of human love. You might as well ask me to love my mother because she speaks English.
On truth. . .
There is no truth in pride. If our knowledge is true, then it ought to make us humble. If humble, holy.
On the challenge of our time. . .
The whole problem of our time is not lack of knowledge but lack of love.
I like that last one a lot. Good night LitNet!
Love,
The Comedian
PS: Rating: 8.5/10 Gregorian Chants
Here is picture of Merton:
http://slowmuse.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/primary-merton.jpg
And here is a picture of the Abbey of Gethsemani:
http://www.urbandharma.org/G3/images/jpeg/AbbeyByAir1.jpg
The topic of each essay almost inevitably revolves around a single or group of virtues. "Love Can Be Kept Only by Being Given Away," "Asceticism and Sacrifice," "The Measure of Charity," "Mercy," "The Inward Solitude," and "Silence" are some of the titles of the essays in this volume.
Each essay follows a general pattern of defining the principle virtue and showing how one can develop the virtue on a spiritual trajectory from ignorance to understanding, to philosophical understanding, to application, to theological understanding, to theological application. I'll admit that I'm not a spiritual dogmatist, so the latter sections of these essays, when Merton ties the virtue into the beliefs of the Catholic church were less interesting to me than the earlier sections.
But I really enjoyed this little book: Merton's style and honesty are fresh and vital. His prose calming. I came to his page hoping for a drink of spiritual spring water. And I wasn't disappointed.
And while this probably wasn't what Merton intended, it was his beautiful writing and inquiry into understanding the virtues that create a calm soul that, to me, were the most meditative and spiritually refreshing. Here are some of the many gems to be found in No Man Is an Island:
On the search for meaning . . . .
Our life, as individual persons and as members of a perplexed and struggling race, provokes us with the evidence that it must have meaning.
That freedom must have purpose. . .
Conscience is the soul of freedom, its eyes, its energy, its life. Without conscience, freedom never knows what to do with itself. And a rational being who does not know what to do with himself finds the tedium of life unbearable. Just as love does not find its fulfillment merely in loving blindly, so freedom wastes away when it merely "acts freely" without any purpose.
That love of humanity must be rooted in something more than abstraction. . . .
Do not ask me to love my brother merely in the name of an abstraction --"society," the "human race," the "common good." Do not tell me that I ought to love him because we are both "social animals." These things are so much less than the good that is in us that they are not worth to be invoked as motives of human love. You might as well ask me to love my mother because she speaks English.
On truth. . .
There is no truth in pride. If our knowledge is true, then it ought to make us humble. If humble, holy.
On the challenge of our time. . .
The whole problem of our time is not lack of knowledge but lack of love.
I like that last one a lot. Good night LitNet!
Love,
The Comedian
PS: Rating: 8.5/10 Gregorian Chants