Michael Krahn : A Mind Awake

Mike:

I came here via Sarah Rachel’s website

You have a thoughtful page here. I’ve bookmarked it.

As you share Merton’s interest in imaginative writing as a path to God, let me suggest “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” by Paul Elie which is an introduction to and comparison of the writings of Flannery O’Connor, Walker Percy, Dorothy Day and Merton, himself.

Day, foundress of the Catholic Worker, was a journalist/activist. Percy and O’Connor are Southern Catholic writers of the first rank in the canon of American literature. Upon examination, I think you’ll find them worthy of inclusion on your “honor roll”. They’ve got it going simultaneously in the realms of intellect, imagination and culture.

I have deep respect for your roots in the Anabaptist heritage of work for peace and justice but question your openness to the critique of monasticism as “non-evangelistic”. I know you let Merton off the hook because of the “evangelical” value of the splash he made in literary circles in the fifties and sixties. In Merton’s own view, however, his fame as a litterateur got in the way of his life as a monk and was the greatest obstacle to discovery of his “true self”.

I know there are Protestant orders of monks and nuns but the Reform’s focus on the relationship between the individual and his God can sometimes impede understanding of the value of the monastic vocation as a purely contemplative participation in the mystical body of Christ and an essential part of the communal whole.

There is scriptural warrant for this view in the story of the good thief (Lk. 23:39-43), the only character personally promised salvation in the entire bible. Like Christ, he was crucified on the socio-political structures of his epoch and unable to “do” anything but contemplate and call attention in his prayer to the operation of injustice in this world. For this (alone) he was assured of “paradise”.

its not a job, its a vocation.

we aren’t _all_ called to it. we could not be. that would inhibit much of what we understand about the commission to go forth into all the world proclaiming the Gospel and baptizing them, etc etc. just as it would never do to have all catholic men called to celibacy and priesthood.

the call to cloistered, vocational religious life is one that most of the “rest” of us are unable to understand. but that devotion, that single-mindedness…it does a good for the Body of Christ and for all of us who have NOT been called. the monastic may evangelize in a different manner than you recognize, but there is an element of it, even in the most secluded and silent religious brother. sometimes, when Christ is spotted among our flowery words, we are prone to say, “see, without me, this fellow may not have ever found Christ.” when individuals are drawn to those who live in religious communities (and they ARE drawn there quite often) it is because the Spirit is drawing them toward something different, set aside, Holy.

One of the things that drew me away from the evangelical protestant world was the sense of the sacred in the Catholic Church…not a set-apart sacredness which defines all else as sinful…but a sacredness amid the secular. an actual transforming power. that is part of what the monasteries and convents provide…the prayer and devotion to Christ is an integral part of the larger picture. and, at times in history, such places have been some of the last strong-holds of Christianity: the seed that remains to grow and flourish again after a long winter.
just a few of my initial thoughts…

Michael, you may also enjoy this review..

http://nextreformation.com/wp-admin/general/merton1.htm

Thank you for visiting my blog, Desert, Michael. Merton has fulfilled the role of Spiritual Director in my life over the years. He opened up horizons and possibilities, taught me much. I am pleased to meet someone else who has been impacted by his gifts.

Blessings and bliss.

Thanks for stopping by my blogspot. How beautiful to read what you have written. I can’t believe you don’t work full time as a writer.

Blessings and Merry Christmas,

Ella

Ella »

Thank you for the generous complement. Someday I would like to work as a full-time writer, but for now… my family needs to eat.

Michael, nice work with your posts on Thomas Merton. Like you, I have come to regard Merton as a spiritual mentor and have been working my way through his books - now partway through the third volume of his journals. I will check back to hear more. You may also want to visit my blog, where I post occasionally (see here, here, and here) about Merton and his influence.

Good luck on your journey.