Entering the Silence: Becoming a Monk and a Writer

The Journals of Thomas Merton #2

by Thomas Merton

The second volume of Thomas Merton's "gusty, passionate journals" (Thomas Moore) chronicles Merton's advancements to priesthood and emergence as a bestselling author with the surprise success of his autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain. Spanning an eleven-year period, Entering the Silence reflects Merton's struggle to balance his vocation to solitude with the budding literary career that would soon established him as one of the most important spiritual writers of our century.

Genres: Spirituality, Christianity, Religion, Nonfiction, Biography, Theology, Catholic

526 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Thomas Merton, religious name M. Louis, was an American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, mystic, poet, social activist and scholar of comparative religion. In December 1941 he entered the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani and in May 1949 he was ordained to priesthood. He was a member of the convent of the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, near Bardstown, Kentucky, living there from 1941 to his death.
Merton wrote more than 50 books in a period of 27 years, mostly on spirituality, social justice and a quiet pacifism, as well as scores of essays and reviews. Among Merton's most enduring works is his bestselling autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain (1948). His account of his spiritual journey inspired scores of World War II veterans, students, and teenagers to explore offerings of monasteries across the US. It is on National Review's list of the 100 best nonfiction books of the century.
Merton became a keen proponent of interfaith understanding, exploring Eastern religions through his study of mystic practice. His interfaith conversation, which preserved both Protestant and Catholic theological positions, helped to build mutual respect via their shared experiences at a period of heightened hostility. He is particularly known for having pioneered dialogue with prominent Asian spiritual figures, including the Dalai Lama XIV; Japanese writer D.T. Suzuki; Thai Buddhist monk Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, and Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh. He traveled extensively in the course of meeting with them and attending international conferences on religion. In addition, he wrote books on Zen Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, and how Christianity is related to them. This was highly unusual at the time in the United States, particularly within the religious orders.

Reviews

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thomas Merton would be prolific writer, Catholic thinker and leader in the Vietnam peace movement. Before the beginning of this journal he will come through World War II having left behind what we are led to believe was a somewhat desperate and dissipated life before entering a Trappist monastery in Gethsemane, in Kentucky. This is his second of several personal journals and covers the period from his novitiate to approximately 10 years later 1952. In brief it is a detailed, we are told unedited version of his internal struggles to understand his own role as a monk and to discipline his desires to be one with God.

In addition to what are his personal thoughts there is an opening section entitled a Journal Memoir: Dom Frederick Donne, October 1946 through August 1948. This piece is intended to document Martin's relationship with a senior member of his monastery, a leader, a mentor and a man I think we are meant to respect. While the respect and the merit of Dom Frederick Dunne comes through I found something about this section unsettling. Given that Trappist are a very aesthetic and disciplined order, I could not help but notice a certain snobbery and I'm sorry if it sounds funny "holier than thou attitude "whenever the subject of other religions or even other orders comes up. One of the final tasks for of Dom Frederick Dunne was to establish a new monastery in Utah. Some of the conversation between Merton and his senior suggest an almost amused disrespect towards the Mormon Church. Perhaps it was this unexpected critical attitude that made it a little more difficult for me to fully appreciate all of the protestations of a disembodied aesthetic religious monk.

The journal proper begins by being repetitious and occasionally frustrating. Much of this is because I personally do not understand why anyone would want to live this type of life. By forcing myself to continue I think I grasped something of what this man was attempting to do. His entrance into monastic life was a struggle towards his passionate desire to surrender himself entirely to a disembodied dispossessed Holy Spirit. Against this he has to fight his own ego in a series of conflicting thought processes. He understands that he cannot achieve purity except through death but that it would be wrong for him to seek that death. He prays that he be made a saint with almost the same fervor that he prays to be lifted above all desires including the types of desires that would make a person want to be a saint. In between his meditations and prayers on the desirability of solitude and of the need to live evermore minimally in this world we see brother Merton actively engaged in the marketing of what will become his published writings extensive correspondence among a number of religious in several countries and glimpses of monastic life.

As he slowly works through his spiritual struggles we see several very interesting concepts emerge. Of the illuminations that brought some light to me were several interesting concepts. I admire that he recognized the difference between being aesthetic in the name of simplifying your life or proving that you can deal with hardship and being aesthetic because that is what frees you to be a better child of God. One realization I truly wish we could reintroduce to American politics is the concept that one can do good in the name of what is right but to such an extreme that it becomes a sin. That is mercy is a greater principle than so many of the things that are themselves good until they are used to badger and bludgeon those who may have compromised one of these lesser principles.

Beginning when the brother is ordained as a priest and conducts Masses one notices a greater depth and sophistication in these internal dialogues. Brother Merton at this time is well into his 30s practiced and comfortable in his role as a member of the monastery and has begun to consider the fact that there is a world outside of Gethsemane.

As against Brother Merton's insistence on solitude and aesthetic life I found it striking that he is convinced that God will for least brother Merton was that he live in a solitary world; while that same God was routinely reminded the brother that he was a human and human dependent on others. If we consider a man determined to divorce himself him all things worldly he experiences a number of illnesses some no more severe than the flu that completely dominate his ability to think, write and pray. To me it was clear that he was being reminded that he is on this planet and must live on this planet and that being removed from this planet is a grace not to be presumed upon. As Gethsemane's physical institution expands in new buildings and economic activity Brother Merton has the opportunity to see that the ability for monks to live a remote life is dependent on a larger world that makes possible the spiritual isolation he so prizes.

The Journal ends with Brother Merton's exceptionally beautiful essay known as the Fire Watch. It is a magnificent achievement and an almost perfect capstone to this journal. Nowhere in his loving descriptions of his monastery and the beautiful prayers he offers at the regular stops on this tour does it occur to this monk why exactly a monastery needs a fire watch. The building is in the end a building and for all its beauty and for all the sanctuary it offers and for all the souls it contains; absent a fire watch it could be a dangerous place. Whatever the sanctity of brother Merton's desire to please God by being removed from this earth; the human that his brother Merton is subject to the physical limits of being human. He is dependent on the efforts of people not aesthetic or solitary and he and his much loved brother monks must daily face the limitations of the physical world that provides them sanctuary.

It is unlikely that any of these realities would have the slightest effect on any spiritual values of the Trappist monks. Their argument would be something like: we know that all things must pass and therefore we dedicate ourselves to preparing for the perfect and indestructible infinity. My own take away is that efforts to remove yourself from this world is an elaborate form of seeking death. Instead I propose that life is among humans and on this Earth for the reason that our task is to learn how best to live among our fellow humans and upon this earth.

It is perhaps premature to assume that my previous paragraph is the last to be said about Thomas Merton. This is the second of several more journals and I write without benefit of having read any of the brother's later and more mature philosophies. I'm not sure that I found this journal sufficiently convincing that I am curious as to what his later writings may include. I can recommend this journal anyone who is seeking their own spiritual journal or wishes to get a thorough understanding of what it is to sincerely dedicate yourself to a spiritual and monastic life.

[Daryl Grigsby]

loved it - Merton is so deep!

[Katie C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

took me three months since I read this only on sundays, will begin 2026 with vol. 3

[John Majors · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just nibble on a few pages each morning. Good way to start my morning devo time. On to vol 3 for the next 6 months.

[Craig Werner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unless you're deeply interested in Merton, this collection of journal entries probably isn't a book you want to read. I am and I'm very glad I read it. Covering about ten years with varying degrees of detail, the diaries chart Merton's ordination as a priest and his first success as a writer, based primarily on The Seven Story Mountain. The most important development in the first half of the book is Merton's decision--or acceptance of his superior's decision--not to pursue the deeper silence of the Carthusian order. Once he's ordinated--and the passages about the first times he celebrates the mass are vivid--he accepts his place in the life of the Gethsemani monastery in Kentucky. He's at best ambivalent about the demands that accompany his success as a writer and I don't think he's being disingenuous when he says he'd be happier if he didn't have to kick out so many words.

Whether or not the full volume is of interest, if you're interested in contemplation as a key to the spirit, the last entry in the volume--about 10 pages--are worth running down. A beautiful description of Merton walking the monastery at night.

The Merton who fascinates me most is the Merton of the sixties who engages with Eastern religion/spirituality and with the political crosscurrents of the era. But I'm glad I've read the first two volumes of his journals and I'll move on immediately to volume three and the fifties.

[Matt Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Other than this collection of journals, my only introduction to Thomas Merton was a smattering of his poems here and there, but I'd argue that's all you need to know to appreciate Entering the Silence. It covers over a decade of Merton's life, as he considers giving up his writing career to embrace complete silence and a more secluded life in devotion to God. He doesn't, but finds a renewed devotion in the tension between being a monk (and later a priest) and an author. There's a quiet power in seeing these struggles play out and reading a no-frills-attached depiction of how Merton's faith and ideas of simplicity and contemplation played out in the day-to-day. I might read more of his "polished" works at some point, but I'm skeptical they'll capture the same raw honesty and clarity with a keen eye for both physical and spiritual realities.

[Judith Shadford · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm glad I read volume 2 after volume 6. To see how far Merton grew, matured, became alive. How he left off sermonizing. Even when you know that these were ecstatic experiences for him, they get heavy. One's mind wanders. The later volumes, so full of his skill as a naturalist, really...these are the persuasive accounts. And of course, the movement of his mind from dogma to theology to life. Fabulous. One volume to go.

[Dovofthegalilee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Merton's journals really click for me. He and I have a similiar faith path in the way we discover things and how we percieve ourselves before the Creator. My only saddness is knowing that it will be a long time before I can get the third volume brought to Israel.

[Nick Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I give it five stars, but you definitely have to be interested in Merton minutiae to feel that way about this book. Most of it is still actual, private journal, and his life is both as boring and as interesting as anyone's.

[Harvey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thomas Merton is a read in its own league.

[Edward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thomas Merton entered a Trappist monastery in l941 and kept a journal of his years as a monk from then to his untimely death in 1968. The journals have subsequently been published in seven volumes, this being the second in the series and covering eleven early years.

Merton was a prolific writer, not only in these edited journal entries, but beginning with his first published and popular THE SEVEN STOREY MOUNTAIN (1946). This began a publishing career which often interfered with his calling of holiness and humility. He writes, “How weary I am of being a writer. How necessary it is for monks to work in the fields, in the mud, in the clay, in he wind; these are our spiritual directory.” Later, he adds, “It seems to me that, since I became a great success in the book business, I have been becoming more and more of a failure in my vocation.”

Merton’s primary goal was always to live out this vocation. He commented that a person does not understand the Bible unless its meaning is lived out in his own life. The life of Merton was at first concentrated on his experiences in the monastery. Only later would he connect his monastery life with life beyond the monastery, perhaps inevitable as there was a demand and hunger for the numerous books he published.

But in these relatively early journal entries, he found plenty within the monastery to engage his attention, always with the goal of making himself a better human being, one who is capable of loving God and others, which in the end may be the same thing. “This community [of monks] . . . is brought together by God’s grace in order to love God and my brothers and the whole world, because by our keeping our Rule the world is also saved..”

A key question is always what being “saved” really means. One of his books is titled THE SIGN OF JONAS, and in the figure of Jonas he always found a key symbol. He recounts looking at children's’ drawings of Jonas, and in every one one Jonas was located in or near the whale. He sees the whale as a representation of being dead, insensitive to life. Being released from the whale is a universal desire of resurrection, with a belief in Christ as a redeemer who brings about that “resurrection.””

Merton is always reaching out, finding parallels to what he is attempting to achieve in the monastery. One such reaching is his interest in Henry David Thoreau whose reason for going to the woods he quotes, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life and see if I could not learn what it had to teach and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

Merton’s time in the monastery is certainly one of deliberative living, for his own good, and in the end, for the good of everyone, the world, which can learn what is essential in a good life, and what is distraction and illusion.

[Paul Birch · Rating 5 out of 5]

So hard to write a review of any Merton book. It eats into you. The second journal gives so much more insight into his formation. From the beginning to the end you can see the change in him. Always probing and asking the right questions. I can never forget a Merton book

[Maria Hrickova · Rating 5 out of 5]

❤️

[John Howes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continuing his thought provoking diaries.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compelling explication of the struggles and transports of a contemplative monk.