Thoughts In Solitude | Thomas Merton | Great thoughts on the spiritual life and solitude.

Thoughts In Solitude | Thomas Merton | A reader from Richmond, VA

books:

Thoughts In Solitude

	Thoughts In Solitude Thomas Merton Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999 - 144 pages average customer review:based on 25 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Great thoughts on the spiritual life and solitude.

Even though the contents of this book were written in 1953-54, the thoughts here are most appropriate today if one seeks to understand solitude as it relates to the spiritual life. Merton's thoughts about the desert, one's spiritual life, the sacraments, prayer, the Church, books and reading, and silence will make one evaluate one's relationship with God.The book is divided into two sections. One is the aspects of the spiritual life, and the other section is the love of solitude. One conclusion Meron makes in the first section is found in the following words: "The solution of the problem of life is life itself. Life is not attained by reasoning and analysis, but first of all by living" (page 78).The spiritual life is a journey. In the second section, Merton has some challenging thoughts on solitude. It seems that every Christian desires solitude from time to time. Merton writes, "We put words between ourselves and things. Even God has become another conceptual unreality in a no-man's land of language that no longer serves as a means of communion with reality" (page 85).THOUGHTS IN SOLITUDE is a brief book compared to many of Merton's other books, however, this is one of his best. It will make you think, and it will probably make you evaluate your Christian walk with God. As Merton writes, "Do not flee to solitude from the community. Find God first in the community,then He will lead you to solitude." This is a book worth reading.

for more information click here

A reader from Richmond, VA

This book has much spiritual insight in that it is balanced. It strikes a balance between reality and the limitations of humanity and the struggle for divine relationship. It challenges one to go higher while accepting oneself right where that person may be, since God accepts one right where they are.

An Elixir for our Age of Anxiety

Thomas Merton writes words that, in their simplicity and honesty and clarity, point humanity to a more holistic idea of what it means to be spiritual. As Merton says, "The spiritual life is not merely something to be known and studied, it is to be lived." By focusing on the power we can gain from a deeper understanding of poverty, humility, solitude, prayer, Scripture, and love, Merton shows us that it is not enough to live "for God" or "with God," but "in God alone," and in Him we find ourselves and our inalienable spirituality. We can discover that to love God with a human heart is enough, for that is what Jesus did and died for, that we may do the same: love God and our fellow man not as angels or demi-gods or as a pure intellect, but as the humans God made in His own image.

for more information click here

This is a beautiful little book.

Thoughts in Solitude, by Thomas Merton, is a beautiful little book with musings and insights which come out of his life as a contemplative monk. One thing I love about Merton - and this book - is that it breathes solitude - slow, reflective, thoughtful, quiet solitude. Merton knows what we ALL should know - that Reality can only be ascertained from a silence and stillness of being. This Reality - the reality of God and of one's Self - is the groundwork for proper action or speech in the world. Far from fleeing one's duties, one only discovers them properly if one has incorporated this into one's life. He speaks of the things that are most useful precisely because they are useless to man, the silence that penetrates the very bones of a monk, the discovery of Self and of God by leaving self and over-externality. One finds one's Self by losing one's self, one speaks with meaning by being silent, one finds God by renouncing gods. The spiritual life IS a contradiction from a worldly standpoint. He who is last shall be first, he who is most mature shall become like a child, he who has nothing shall have everything. The discovery of God and one's Self is a stripping away - not an accumulation, a receptivity, not an overwhelming. Highly recommended.

for more information click here

a contemplative gem....

....written about solitude and the spiritual life in the form of a series of meditations. Like all his work, written with wisdom, humility, and grace.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, page 5

products you might be interested in