Reading Invokes a Response

As Merton recalled of one of his favorite authors, “The Providence of God was eventually to use Blake to awaken something of faith and love in my own soul – in spite of all the misleading notions, and all the almost infinite possibilities of error that underlie his weird and violent figures.”[1]  God can use any avenue to bring people to his presence.  Blake was not always a man of faith, and therefore his poems were not strewn with Christian illusions.  Yet God used Merton’s love of literature to draw him nearer; He might use art or even sports to do the same for another.  It just so happened that Merton had a consistent stream of books which held his interest and therefore God entered the pages to come to life through his persistent reading.

So “just as his reading helped him in moving toward these goals, so our reading of Merton’s works can do the same for us.”[2]  We can take his example and draw nearer to God through reading, if that is a love of ours.  Spiritual reading as a whole can “assist in the reformation of our hearts and minds into the likeness of Jesus Christ.”[3]  Utilizing books for this purpose involves interacting with the words for the personal formation aspects rather than the head knowledge that can be gleaned. 

 

After his conversion, Merton wrote “to help people to be better Christians”[4] just as so many writers before him had done.  He appreciated the custom of Saint John of the Cross, who wrote out “short meditative phrases…that could be used as a meditative preparation for contemplative attention.”[5]  Merton utilized such a practice to help young monks approach meditation.  His theological writing assisted the deepening of faith for his fellow monks as well as superiors and even for readers today.  This practice was used in Merton’s own practices as one of his favorite things to do was to meditate “in silence on a spiritual author.”[6]  I think this is a very practical takeaway from how Merton utilized his love of literature to further his spirituality.

The act of reading is not merely for pleasure, but it invokes a response.   Personally, I have found certain quotes from Merton helpful in my own spiritual journey as I am able to contemplate his words as they relate to the Christian life.  He was able to “juxtapose whatever he reads and contemplates…with the reality of his monastic existence.”[7]  Likewise, the reader of Merton works and other spiritual writings can contemplate the words on the page in their own setting.  I, too, can appreciate the aspects of creation that are touched upon in Blake’s poems and the vividness of Hopkin’s verses.  Writers have the unique gifts to bring to life things that are often passed by without much thought since “words can travel beyond their confines into the mystery of God.”[8]  The importance of spiritual reading is to see how God works through these writers to bring his people closer to Him.  This was evident in Merton’s life as he became the same literary influence that other writers had been to him.

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[1] Merton, Seven Storey, 97.

[2] Shannon, 122.

[3] Roller, xii.

[4] Cunningham, 30.

[5] Ibid, 40.

[6] Ibid, 131.

[7] Kountz, 156.

[8] Llavador, 1.

William Blake's Influence (Merton's Love of Books - part 6)

William Blake

Part of his enticement was likely the nostalgia of his father who introduced him to Blake’s writing when he was ten, but by the time he was sixteen Merton “liked Blake immensely” and “read him with more patience and attention than any other poet.”[1]  He was moved by the depth and power of Blake’s words, especially because he could not quite figure him out. 

Something about Merton was drawn to the mystery of Blake, and I think that is carried on through his drive towards the monastic life and Scripture in and of itself. He later acknowledged his debt to him in The Seven Storey Mountain, stating “through Blake I would one day come, in a round-about way, to the only true Church, and to the One Living God, through His Son, Jesus Christ.”[2]  God utilized his appreciation for literature – secular or Christian – to draw him nearer to Him. 

His love for Blake did not cease throughout his childhood, but rather held strong as he entered adulthood.  While studying at Columbia, Merton decided to write his thesis on Blake’s poems and fondly recalled “what a thing it was to live in contact with the genius and the holiness of William Blake that year, that summer, writing the thesis!”[3]  Merton appreciated Blake’s deepness in thought and verse, acknowledging his imperfections as characteristics of his talent. 

Through his studies, he came to the revelation that Blake “had developed a moral insight that cut through all the false distinctions of a worldly and interested morality.”[4]  He consistently discovered new meanings behind Blake’s words.  In his earlier secular journals, Merton wrote how Blake once told someone his poems were dictated by the angels.  He responds by stating that “we have to be very careful and guard our position against anything above that – angels, or God.”[5]  Though this was before his conversion, Merton still wrestled with such thoughts of writers he appreciated, attempting to come to a conclusion himself.

"The Poet's Dream" - William Blake

As he did with Gerard Manley Hopkins, Merton attempted to figure out the man behind the words.  He wanted to figure out what he believed and preached and how that was applicable to his own life.  “The key to Merton’s attraction to and treatment of William Blake lies in identifying in the life of Blake.”[6]  Because Blake was drawn to Catholicism through Dante’s writings, recognizing it as “the only religion that really taught the love of God,”[7] Merton recognized that truth that could be found through literature.  Studying Blake’s life also allowed him to see a change in his demeanor after conversion where he died with “great songs of joy bursting from his heart.”[8]  Such a strong desire burned within Merton as well, who became more aware of the need for faith in his own life.  Of him, Merton states, “I think my love for William Blake had something in it of God’s grace.  It is a love that has never died, and which has entered very deeply into the development of my life.”[9]  Pieces of Blake’s writing is even scattered throughout The Seven Storey Mountain, further exemplifying how much of an influence he had on Merton. 

[1] Merton, Seven Storey, 95.

[2] Merton, Seven Storey, 97.

[3] Ibid, 207.

[4] Ibid, 222.

[5] Thomas Merton, Secular Journal of Thomas Merton (New York: Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, 1960), 5.

[6] David D. Cooper, Thomas Merton's Art of Denial: the Evolution of a Radical Humanist (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2008), 100.

[7] Merton, Seven Storey, 208.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid, 94.