Seven Storey Background Information

[Leslie]

Greetings everyone! Today I'll go ahead and post the reading schedule for our next selection. Please keep in my mind that this is just the schedule that I'll be following as your moderator. It's holiday season, so if you need to go at a slower pace, that's fine. The threads will stay up for several months. I'm really looking forward to reading this with you and hearing your thoughts.

I thought we'd start by getting to know each other. My name is Leslie. I'm an avid book worm and especially enjoy reading within my faith. I have not read this work previously, but just finished reading a terrific book on the history of Flannery O'Connor, Thomas Merton, Walker Percy, and Dorothy Day. It discussed their writing, their influences, their lives and the impact of the times in which they lived. It was a terrific read and I highly recommend it.

The Life You Save May Be Your Own: An American Pilgrimage by Paul Elie

I'd love to hear what brings you here, why are you interested in Merton, and have you read this before.

I thought I'd share a few websites and articles on Merton for you to look through while we get our books. I hope you will find these interesting. There's also a very short movie clip on his life. I'll try to attach that as well.

http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-de...

http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...

Movie link: http://video.pbs.org/video/2331028237

Merton websites:

http://thomasmerton.org/

http://www.merton.org/

http://www.biography.com/people/thoma...

http://www.catholic.com/magazine/arti...

http://www.faithstreet.com/onfaith/20...

https://www.avemariapress.com/author/...

[Susan Margaret]

Good links Leslie! I thought I might post one more. The following link is a short video on youtube of Bishop Robert Barron speaking about Thomas Merton:

http://youtu.be/5X8fp2CvQmA

[Susan Margaret]

Ok, here is one more link. It is another video on youtube called Modern Masters of Religion. It is approximately 13 minutes long and Father James Martin talks about Thomas Merton.

http://youtu.be/oChBG73iUHI

[Leslie]

Thanks Susan Margaret. I found much more too but didn't want to overwhelm. Here's one from Huffington Post. If you search Merton on their site, there's a bunch of articles on him.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/th...

[Jane]

I am reading the 7 Storey Mtn for the third time now. The first time I read it was some 20+ years ago when I was considering joining the Roman Catholic Church. Thomas Merton kept me company through that process. I found much comfort, courage and instruction in his autobiography. Many aspects of his personal and spiritual life were not dissimilar to mine. I have a great fondness and appreciation of him. He has been an integral part of my conversion and I revisit some of his works, Seeds of Contemplation, and his private journals from time to time. I am looking forward to participating in the discussion of this book.

[Leslie]

June,

It's great to have you with us. When you wrote that I remembered that when I was going through my RCIA classes, I started this book but never finished.

Merton has a soothing effect on the soul (for me). I feel like he's down-to-earth enough that I can relate to him, but he's inspiring at the same time. I remember that I stopped reading this book because he spiked my interest on monasteries, cloisters, etc. I found a couple of terrific books on those topics that were shorter so never finished this one.

I'm enjoying my re-read thus far.

[Irene]

This will b my third read of the Seven Story Mountain. I first became interested in Merton as a young adult involved in the peace movement, Pax Christi and others. His writing on contemplative prayer has been less interesting for me than has his social commentaries.

[Susan Margaret]

I had heard of Thomas Merton and knew very little about him other than the fact that he was a monk and a very deep thinker. I was leery about reading Merton's writings because I thought they would be too difficult for me to understand. However, I think I can handle reading his autobiography. When Pope Francis mentioned Merton in his speech to congress, I was prompted to learn more about Merton. I look forward to this reading and discussion.

[Galicius]

My first encounter with Thomas Merton was by way of an author and traveler that I read almost more than any writer Paul Theroux who writes about Merton several times in his travel books. What he wrote about Merton would give away crucial part of his story so I can’t put it down for those who have not perused his biography however briefly but what I learned from Theroux was striking enough to put him down on my short future reading list. He is therefore new to my reading. This will be a good occasion to learn about this interesting individual.

[Doreen]

I have started reading the Merton book but with 5 books going at once I may be a little behind others. Really enjoying it so far and am glad it was the choice for our group read.

[Susie]

Doreen wrote: "I have started reading the Merton book but with 5 books going at once I may be a little behind others. Really enjoying it so far and am glad it was the choice for our group read."

I'm where you're at...several books going at once, but decided to dive in. Not a difficult read read for me so far...I'll probably even meet the first marker in the reading schedule!

No promises after that... ;)

I had to stop and check out St. Antonin, the village (and area) in southern France where he moved with his father...what a beautiful place!

What is the policy here...can we post pictures from Google? Are their copyright issues I need to be aware of?

[Leslie]

Susie,

I should be setting up the discussion thread today for the first benchmark. I'm fine with you posting pictures. I had a few that I was planning on posting.