THOMAS MERTON SPEAKS OF A LIFE OF PRAYER        

On the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Thomas Merton, here is an Excerpt from an Interview of Thomas Merton by Bro. David Steindl-Rast, O.S.B.  

[Br. David begins:] To start where you are and to become aware of the connections, that was Thomas Merton's approach to prayer.

[Thomas Merton:]"We were indoctrinated so much into means and ends," he said, "that we don't realize that there is a different dimension in the life of prayer.  In technology you have this horizontal progress, where you must start at one point and move to another and then another.  But that is not the way to build a life of prayer.  In prayer we discover what we already have.  You start where you are and you deepen what you already have, and you realize that you are already there.  We already have everything, but we don't know it and we don't experience it.  Everything has been given to us in Christ.  All we need is to experience what we already possess.

"The trouble is, we aren't taking time to do so."  The idea of taking time to experience, to savor, to let life fully come to itself in us, was a key idea in Thomas Merton's reflections on prayer.  "If we really want prayer, we'll have to give it time.  We must slow down to a human tempo and we'll begin to have time to listen.  And as soon as we listen to what's going on, things will begin to take shape by themselves.  But for this we have to experience time in a new way. "One of the best things for me when I went to the hermitage was being attentive to the times of the day:  when the birds began to sing, and the deer came out of the morning fog, and the sun came up - while in the monastery, summer or winter, Lauds is at the same hour.  The reason why we don't take time is a feeling that we have to keep moving.  This is a real sickness.".....