A Personal Perspective on Thomas Merton

I know I had promised you that we would return to Turkey today, but I can’t resist a follow-up to my essay about Thomas Merton.  After it was posted, I received a most interesting link from a reader, Randy De Trinis, who in the late 1950s lived as a monk at Our Lady of Gethsemani in Kentucky.  While there he was fortunate to know Thomas Merton, and his recollections of his spiritual journey and his interactions with Merton are moving and fascinating (see Thomas Merton and the Quest).

“When you were speaking with [Merton] you felt as if you were the most important person in his life and that his honesty and good will sprang from the depths of his soul,” writes Randy.  His blog–which contains material he wrote for the journal of the International Thomas Merton Society–provides personal reflections on one of the most intriguing men of the twentieth century. 

It’s full of wonderful, telling details.  One recollection, for example, is of the two of them meeting together when Merton served as Novice Master.  While they would talk of spiritual matters, they also would often reminisce about life in New York City, and the two had great fun telling stories.  “Some of the novices [told] me that they used to sit around near Louie’s office just to hear the laughter when we were having our time together,” recalls Randy.  (You may recall that Merton was known as Father Louis within the monastery walls.)

He continues:  “As far as I know, not too many avatars roam the earth, but this amazing man was surely a sign of the abundance and wonder of the Other.  I am astounded that I was given the great gift to have met him and listened to him. He pointed ever toward the truth and the need for understanding, compassion and love in the quest for meaning in our short lives. We have all been made richer having had him with us in this insane and wonderful universe.”

Thank you, Randy, for sharing your story with the larger world (I especially love the letter Merton wrote to you about the library books).

Perhaps my favorite line of the piece are these words written to Randy by Merton:  “Be humble enough to take anything good from anybody even if it is far short of perfect.”