Dec 10 - “Thomas Merton” © icon by Br. Robert Lentz, OFM. Happy Memorial Day Thomas!
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Thomas Merton wrote prophetically from his monastic seclusion for over 25 years. He spoke on subjects as varied as prayer, racial relations, non-violence, and art. Loving truth, he exposed falsehood wherever he found it. He pointed a way for Western Christians in this time of profound cultural change.
While never ceasing to be a Christian monk, he was entirely at home in Asian experience. He practiced Zen because he felt it enabled Western people to go beyond their tendency to analyze God, to reduce God to an "object." Experience, not analysis, is the path of God. "This obsession with doctrinal formulas, juridical order and ritual exactitude," he wrote, "has often made people forget that the heart of Catholicism, too, is a living experience of unity in Christ which far transcends all conceptual formulations." As Byzantine Christians would say, theology must be done on one’s knees.
Both Buddhist and Christian symbolism are combined in this icon, to express the way Merton reconciled the two spiritual traditions in his own life. His raised right hand represents "fear not", and his left calls upon the earth to bear witness that he has overcome temptation. The Greek inscription by his head reads "Holy Thomas." He wears the Cistercian cowl.
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