Tag: Contemplative Prayer

Being, Not Just Doing!

My friend Jeff Wood, a scholar and fellow lover of all things Merton, shared with me an article which I really enjoyed:  “On The Road with Thomas Merton” by Jeremy Seifert (https://emergencemagazine.org/feature/on-the-road-with-thomas-merton/). Seifert digs deeply into the life and words of Thomas Merton.

Jump with me today into a couple of Mertonian quotes!

“In order to live I have to die” is not an easy one to digest, until I recall how Christians are called to die to self and live to Christ.  Paul said in Philippians 1:21: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (NASB1995).  I love how the Amplified Bible explains difficult biblical ideas like this one: “For to me, to live is Christ [He is my source of joy, my reason to live] and to die is gain [for I will be with Him in eternity].”

“Life is not so much about trying to do something, just trying to be.”  Being, Not Just Doing!  One of the joys of engaging in Contemplative Prayer is the realization that our lives are far too often focused on how much we get done.  My journaling practice of ending each day with a few moments to reflect on “where did I experience God today and where did I miss God today” is called The Examination of Conscience.  Each day is a gift from God, and taking time to “examine” whether I am too busy “doing” things that I have not spent a single moment focusing on “who I am and Whose I am.”

Is there a tension here which is built into our human psyches?  After all, we have to “do” things or we won’t be able to pay our bills, put food on the table, or put clothing on our children!  Surely Merton would not condone just “sitting around all day never doing anything, just thinking and praying”!

Do not forget that the Abbey of Gethsemani (where Merton lived) was inhabited by Trappist monks who prayed the daily liturgy of the hours but who also worked out in the fields, in the kitchen, and in the shop creating their amazing cheeses, fudge, and bourbon fruitcakes!  Their day – and our day – can be, and hopefully is, filled with a balance of both the introspective being and the need to be productive at something by doing.  I believe the key to successfully implementing this concept is the word “just” which hopefully brings a blessing of balance to you today and every day!

 Being, Not Just Doing! Is a challenge worth undertaking, wouldn’t you agree? I love getting “comments” from readers of my blogs, so please do not be shy! I never cease being amazed at how Merton seekers from all over the world are finding this blog site.  Blessings on you today as you contemplate Being, Not Just Doing!

Leave a comment, if you wish, regarding this post or how you discovered The Merton Prayer and why it is important to you. 

You will find The Merton Prayer and more at https://themertonprayer.com/

[NOTE:  If your organization, church, or school would like a workshop/presentation on The Merton Prayer please use the contact tab and let me know!  I can Zoom all over the world and have done 90-minute, 3-hour, 5-hour, weekend, or five-day workshops/retreats.]

Silent Retreats, Drunk Accountants, and Brilliant Sunlight

As a native Kentuckian, I had a very strange early awareness of the Abbey of Gethsemani, Merton’s home for 27 years as a Trap­pist Monk. Gethsemani is about seventy-five miles west from my childhood home in Lexington. My father, Gayle Denny, was pres­ident of Transylvania Printing Company, an office-supply com­pany located in downtown Lexington. The company’s accountant was an Irish Catholic who had a serious drinking problem.

My father would regularly send his accountant to the Abbey of Gethsemani for a “retreat,” which really meant a time for him to sober up and get back on the wagon. After a few days at the Abbey guesthouse, the accountant would return to work in good shape and thank my father profusely for his generous gift of time at the Abbey. He would bring my father gifts from the monks– some cheese, which I loved, and (ironic gift from an alcoholic) the monks’ famous bourbon-laced fruit cake, which I hated.  The drunk accountant story was on my mind the first time I stepped foot onto the abbey grounds in 2004. 

I guess I expected to see a bunch of alcoholic accountants wandering around, but instead I saw monks and serious-minded fellow Christians seeking respite and transformation.  I had signed up for a week-long silent retreat at Gethsemani and was very excited to enter the chapel for the first time.  When I sat down alone in the balcony, the sunlight streaming through the stained-glass windows, I felt the tug of the Holy Spirit saying, “Steven, you are in a really really really good place —  breathe it in and come close to me.” [The Merton Prayer:  An Exercise in Authenticity, pp. 152-154]

Leave a comment, if you wish, as to how you found The Merton Prayer and why it is important to you.  Thanks for visiting TheMertonPrayer.com!