5 comments about Appointment in Jerusalem: A True Story of Faith, Love, and the Miraculous Power of Prayer.

1. I've read "Appointment in Jerusalem" at least a dozen times. And each time I find more that applies to my life. My copy of the book is so highlighted and I take it out of the bookcase to re-read and look at the highlighted phrases and passages often. Lydia was a brave woman and truly followed what she felt God was saying and showing her. Out of my whole library this a my "must" book, and if I had to save any books from destruction, say a fire, I'd grab my Bible and "Appointment in Jerusalem." Derek Prince is one of my favorite teaching authors and he and Lydia did wonderfully in this book. It truly captivated my heart, and after going to Israel two years ago, I knew more of her heart. My desire is to return to the land that captivated my heart...a place I know I belong.



2. I love this book. The book had been around in my house for years and probably belonged to my late sister. I just bypassed it until the day I picked it up to gloss over and couldn't put it down until I had finished reading it. It is a powerful testimony of how God can interact face to face and in detail with a human even in these present times.
   It re-iterates that God sees the heart and all you have to do is seek him, seek to know the true God and he will reveal himself to you. This is a book I read every year and I am sorry to say, never lend out because I just cannot afford to lose it. I think the Derek Prince ministry has decided to reprint it though.
   This book makes one feel so close to God. It's an effect of both the events in the book as well as the simplicity with which it was written. It is a definite must-have for every Christian .............



3. I was first introduced to this book a few years ago by my grandfather. It had been read by many members of the family and finally passed down to me. I have been searching for a copy of this amazing book in English (mine is in Russian, so it takes more effort to read through!) and I finally found it! I have read this book 5 or 6 times and I am always inspired and amazed at Lydia's faith in God, but even more so- by God's faith in people! The simple way that the book is written (and it comes across in any language, I think!) is easy to read and hard to put down. One of the greatest books of all time, and should be a classic!



4. An amazing true story. I'm so glad they printed this again. I had to search and search trying to buy affordable copies before.



5. This is a most excellent read. You will cry and laugh and be in suspense.
   It will make you think about things and the important things in life.
   Once you start this book you will not lay it down until you have finished.
   I highly reccommend not only reading it but giving this out as a gift to all you know.

2 comments about The Road of Hope: A Gospel from Prison.

1. You have to imagine yourself in a dark prison to understand the faith of Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan. There is no word i can tell you the feeling of reading this book except i know my faith grows. No wonder the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI speaks so highly of the cardinal in his encyclical letter



2. I could not put this gripping, haunting, and unforgettable book down! Nguyen suffered a tragedy that no human being should have to undergo. The pain, the emotional trauma, the physical attacks that Nguyen endured will burn in your memory for a long time to come.

5 comments about God's Generals: The Roaring Reformers.

1. Infact, the first book of the God's Generals series that I read blew me to the realm of the spirit. I finished that book in no time. I rate it a five star. I'm now reading the second one and I surely recommend the series to anyone who has the zeal to be a general for God. Nana



2. I've enjoyed God's Generals II very much. There is a lot of history contained within it's pages. I have learned a lot that I didn't already know so I can say it is definitely worth reading. I did, however, enjoy God's Generals I more, but I think much of that has to do with the fact that it was more modern generals. Anyway, I recommend you get it.



3. This is an okay book, about Great Men
   
   The people reviewed in this book are great men of God. The book itself is kind of awkward. The author presents biographical sketches, interlaced with comments like, '...I admire the sacrifices that Hus' mother must have made, because I also had a mother and a grandmother who taught me to pray and seek the Lord from my youth. I can relate to the dedication and love that Hus' mother gave to her son. The love of a mother remains the same, no matter what generation she lives in.'
   
   These kind of musings occur throughout the book, and distract from the content. The author also provides a lot of opinions about the characters of these people, rather than just telling their stories.
   
   Overall, a book I'd rather borrow than buy. But I'd rather borrow a better book.



4. I loved every bit of this book. Growing up I dreaded the long monotone teachers and memorizing the dates & the timelines in my history classes. After having a great history teacher in college I have grown to love history! It is now a hobbie of sorts for me. And in this book you can see the lives of these men from a different angle than you find in most history books. I found their lives were relatable and I was encouraged by their trials and their accomplishments!



5. Great read. Chapters highlighted key reformers in an interesting and detailed way. All this info in one volume...this book was very informative and a bargain. I found it very helpful and together with God's General's 1 a perfect edition to my library.

5 comments about Mornings with Henri J.M. Nouwen: Readings and Reflections.

1. This is a great way to start your mornings, a cup of coffee, a breakfast roll and a tidbit from Henry. A great addition to any devotional life!



2. A wonderful collection of short readings to give pause for thought each day.A good introduction to Henri Nouwen's writing style, and a look at his heart.



3. Here's Henri Nouwen, wishing he'd memorized more prayers: "I fear that in crisis situations I will have to depend on my own unredeemed ramblings and not have the Word of God to guide me." This admission reveals Nouwen, a revered spiritual teacher, to be accessible to the ordinary seeker. And the fact that this quote is taken from a reflection called "The Value of Memorized Prayers" further shows Nouwen as one open to all avenues toward holiness. The 112 single-page reflections in this work, chosen from Nouwen's writings on prayer, solitude, and community, are sure to inspire and encourage all who reflect on them. As a bonus, the book is sized to fit in pocket or purse and includes charming photos of Nouwen. Faith-sharing groups could turn to any page for a discussion starter.



4. Henri Nouwen, in my opinion, will be considered one of the most inspired Catholic writers of the 20th Century. Nouwen wrote from his lived experience of being human and yet, finding himself always on a quest for a closer union with God.
   
   With Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, and Mother Teresa, Nouwen will in time be considered one of the luminary spiritual writers of the last century.
   
   Mornings With Henri Nouwen is just a series of very brief reflections that can be used to start one's day. I really like these types of books and tend to leave them in different places around my house so that I will come across different ones at different times of the day.
   
   The topics covered weave Nouwen's writings into them and are truly good thoughts to consider at the start of the day.
   
   Highly recommended for a spiritual focal point to start the day with. James J. Maloney
   Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA



5. Henri Nouwen gives us all a wonderful way to start each day! His inspirational and thought provoking views of life, both practical and spiritual, are just right for any Christian. Although Nouwen was Roman Catholic, his writings provide "soul food" for anyone looking for something more from day to day life. I would recommend this lovely little book to all.

5 comments about The Life of Muhammad.

1. Guillaume's reconstruction of Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah is possibly one of the best biographies written of anyone, though it is not for the novice or uninitiated regarding Islamic history. His attention to detail is sufficient that he retains the isnads, or links of transmission, for the various narrations of witnesses to the Prophet's life, allowing the reader to track the backgrounds of various characters and participants. While Ibn Ishaq's work might contain what some would call legends or impossible stories, nevertheless, one gains an excellent picture of the Prophet's life and deeds. The material below might be a little too technical for most, but considering the detractors and the nature of this book, it is necessary to use the appropriate terms and concepts in Islam.
   
   The principle argument of the critics posted on Amazon is that the translation distorts the original text. This has significant problems here, especially since their argument is primarily based on one passage. First, Ibn Ishaq's original text is lost. Thus, the account of the Prophet reciting a Sura that Gabriel did not bring to him (p166) regarding compromising with polytheism would not be found in the "original Arabic." What one critic is instead probably referencing is Ibn Hisham's heavily edited Sira which removed this account and many others he considered to be "embarrassing" to the dignity of the Prophet. Second, the account in question is attested to by al-Tabari in his Ta'rikh, or History, pp 1192-93. Third, Ibn Sa'd in the al-Tabaqat also accepts the hadith that relate this account, with only slight changes (Vol I, pp 236-37). Fourth, Ibn Kathir, on the basis of following al-Tabari's lead, also accepts the essentials of the account, though edited down (Tafsir, Vol. VI, pp 597-98). In this he cites "Fath al-Bari 8:292" in support of Allah removing falsehood that got into the Prophet's speech. Fifth, Qadi 'Iyad, in the Ash-Shifa, discusses this issue at length in an effort to refute it (pp 300-306). One of his arguments is that the hadith in question is not in the sahih collections, and that it is considered "da'if," or weak. Of course, if this is so, then the same goes for the phrase "the Greater versus the Lesser Jihad," where some claim that the greatest jihad is the fight against one's inner evil and not engaging in warfare. Ibn Taymiyyah cites this hadith as not only da'if, but even considers it a forgery. This hadith at least meets the same criteria as cited by Qadi 'Iyad for the one in question in Ibn Ishaq's work, so should we discard that as unauthentic as well?
   
   Of course, in his effort to refute this passage Qadi 'Iyad opens other cans of worms, such as stating that al-Shaytan (Satan) could deceive transmitters of hadith (which makes all hadith suspect) or that al-Shaytan could even be lurking nearby to speak like the Prophet and thus deceive the listeners, thus making the very Qur'an suspect. Naturally, neither of these possibilities are acceptable to Muslims.
   
   The evidence presented above demonstrates that Guillaume's reconstruction is at least faithful to the documents he had, and thus this rendition of Ibn Ishaq's Sira is accurate and acceptable. It is up to the reader to then sift through the material to see what he or she thinks is the most accurate, and what is possibly legend.
   
   As for the rest of the material, there are numerous nuggets of gold nestled in here, and if one does some serious thinking as they read they can pick out all sorts of fascinating material about the Prophet, his companions, and his campaign to subjugate neighboring tribes, and Makkah itself.
   
   If you are getting serious about studying Islam, you must study this work. But if you want a more simplistic and yet sympathetic biography of the Prophet that is still accurate, then read Sir John Glubb's "The Life and Times of Muhammad."



2. This book is a translation Ibn Ishaq's SIRAT RASUL ALLAH, the original version of which has been lost to history. A. Guillaume translated an abridged edition by Ibn Hisham for his translation. THE LIFE OF MUHAMMAD is the result.
   
   The book is not in the form of an integrated narrative. Instead it's a series of stories, poems, accounts, recollections and other scraps of information collected by Ibn Ishaq bearing on the Prophet and his life and times.
   
   Don't plan on sitting down and reading this cover to cover. It's a scrapbook of information. To his credit, Ibn Ishaq attributes the bits and pieces of information he collects. In that sense, he's trying to do what professional historians still try to do, reconstruct the past and preserve it as best he can.
   
   And, he did a good job. There's a huge amount of information preserved in THE LIFE OF MUHAMMAD. If you're interested in learning more about Muhammad, you'll appreciate this book. I like it and gave it five stars.



3. Read this book as this is considered authentic and most revealing about Muhammed and his cruelty!! Excellent resource for debunking and exposing Islam and Muhammed! I highly recommend this tome!!



4. Ibn Ishaq was the earliest, and probably the most thorough, of Islam's historians. He never claimed that everything he heard was the perfect, absolute fact; rather, he very frankly writes "so-and-so said this, but so-and-so said that." Most of the discrepancies he cites are minor, and the vast majority of the incidents he cites are surprisingly consistent with what other Muslim historians say.
   
   Later, Ibn Hisham produced a "rescinded" version of Ibn Ishaq's work, including in his work an introduction that explains frankly that he cut parts that others might find offensive. It is actually this work that survives -- to date no complete copy of Ibn Ishaq's orginial work has been found.
   
   Meanwhile, however, other Muslim historians commented on Ibn Ishaq's work (before it was rescinded and lost) and quoted from it extensively. Guilliaume has taken these pieces and added them back in, and has indicated clearly what has been added, diligently citing the source of the addition in each case.
   
   While this book is not exactly light reading, it is fascinating, and essential for understanding the context of the Quran. The Quran and the Life of Muhammad should be read side by side to really get an understanding of how Islam developed over the course of Muhammad's life.
   
   Don't be put off by the extremely thorough names -- clan and lineage was an integral part of life in sixth-century Arabia so a person's name often is listed as "A son of B son of C son of D son of E of the clan F." It's even worse when they list four or five people that way, taking up two-thirds of a paragraph before getting to a verb, but just skip over this and read the great stories. This is a fascinating read and a fabulous academic resource.
   
   If you want something a little easier to read, get Martin Lings' book: Muhammad, His Life Based on the Earliest Sources. A work of impeccable scholarship, this book is shorter, easier to read, and, while it is largely based on Ibn Ishaq, it also includes some other sources considered authentic by Islamic scholars. Lings won awards in Pakistan and Egypt for the book, which is in its third printing and is sold all over the Muslim world.
   
   Again, the frustrating thing about any book on the life of Muhammad will be keeping track of who's who -- there are so many characters and many of them share the same name, so you have to make an effort to keep track of which Abdullah and which Sa'd they are talking about. (For example, at one point both of Muhammad's personal bodyguards were named Sa'd.) To add further confusion, the most polite way to address someone in Arabic is "Father of so-and-so" or "Mother of so-and-so" but Martin Lings is pretty good about using one form or the other consistently throughout the book. Also, there is a helpful index in the back of both Guillaume's and Lings' book for when you can't remember who's who.
   
   Either of these books is essential reading if you are studying the Quran or Islam.



5. If you really want to learn more about the early years of Islam and its founder, this book is superior to almost all modern interpretations of Islam, which are invariably tainted with pcism. This is the oldest "sira" (biography) of Mohammad and, as such, is very authoritative amongst Muslims. As for the comments made by some reviewers that the translation is "tainted," this is a false assertion. Regarding the issue of the Satanic Verses, the reason it's included in Ishaq's book is because it is found in the great historian, al-Tabari's volumes. And as Guiliame (sp?) makes clear in his intro, the original biography of Ibn Ishaq's is no longer extant and exists only in recessions, al-Tabari's being one of them. So Guilliame makes it a point to include al-Tabari's excerpts, with, if I rightly recall, an asterisk and in parantheses. That's what's called "scholarship"; the whining made by the (apparently mostly Muslim) reviewers are called "smokescreens."

5 comments about G-Dog and the Homeboys: Father Greg Boyle and the Gangs of East Los Angeles.

1. My husband and I recently heard a taped interview with Father Boyle that aired on NPR. We were very interested in learning more about his unique outreach efforts with LA Gang members. This book is excellent.



2. "G-Dog and the Homeboys" shows how Father Greg Boyle and a select few adults, including the author, completely changed the lives of teens in East LA. Greg opened the homies' and his followers' eyes to the world outside of their lives in their little neighborhood. Many kids would not think past selling drugs to earn a little extra cash, or firing off a couple of rounds of bullets in order to simply stay alive. Boyle changed all of this.
   In actuality, the homies were not violent, cruel, or evil kids at heart. Many had rotten home lives and joined gangs to find love. Others joined for protection. Gangs offered support if they were ever in serious danger.
   Father Greg understood and felt for these teens. Greg lent them helping hand in any way he could. He gave them money for school, jobs, even a roof over their heads. However, the best gift he gave the homies was his love and caring for them.
   As one follows the stories of numerous homies, one realizes how much of an impact one man, Father Greg, had on their lives. This story is touching, at times frightening, and over all, enlightening. It is highly recommended that you read "G-Dog and the Homeboys". Your eyes, too, will be opened to the world around you.



3. This book is quite unlike any other that I have read on crime or gangs, both in style and in substance.
   
   The style is very simple. Fremon makes no attempt to be objective. She makes no effort to put the story into any larger context. She does not come across like a professional writer of any kind. Her ego is absent from the work. Instead, she tells a story, a simple, moving story.
   
   The subject of her story is extraordinary. John Paul II liked to say that there are many more saints around us then we recognize. This story is another example of that. Father Greg Boyle is a normal suburban white guy who became a priest, and was sent to East LA. He found himself surrounded by gang violence. Nothing unusual in the story so far.
   
   But his reaction was extraordinary. He responded to the situation in a radically Christian manner. He did not get into any of the usual left wing politics or posturing. Instead, he offered the gang members uncondititional love, just as the Gospel teaches. He spent time with them. He visited them in jail. He visited them in the hospital. Whenever the guns went off, he was there trying to bring peace. In one extraordinary incident, he put himself between two gangs who were starting a fire fight, and told them that if they wanted to kill each other, they would have to kill him. He was risking his life doing this, and the gang members knew it. They did not shoot; his Christian witness brought them back from their madness.
   
   It took time, but the gang members responded to Father Greg's ministry with tremendous enthusiasm and love. It is an incredibly inspiring story. It reminds us of why we are Christians. It shows us the transforming power of Christian love.
   
   I would like to be able to draw some political conclusions from all of this. I would like to somehow replace our current approach to gangs with Father Greg's approach. I do not know how to do that. I can not see how to make his saintly approach work in ordinary political or police work. But I do know that we are all better people with someone like him among us. If we had more like him, the world would be healed.



4. A wonderful read that can be shared with reluctant readers to bring them face to face with their place in modern literature. A book that should be shared with more teenagers. A look at gang life/ prisons in our urban world through the eyes of someone on a shared journey. I shared this book and another series that Celeste wrote in LA Weekly (2005) with my students as a combination class: experience of life literature and morality. Father Boyle is a master at understanding humanity and our call to larger social responsibility. We are not permitted to dismiss the world around us after reading this book that tugs at the corners of your heart. Greg gives hope where it is needed the most - to everyone. If the opportunity to hear Father Greg Boyle speak presents itself, do yourself a favor and go.



5. Although I have not read this book, I did watch a lecture by Father Boyle given at Regis University. It is amazing what he has accomplished in LA with these gang members. It is a true testament to what God can do if given the chance!

5 comments about Dorie: The Girl Nobody Loved.

1. Dorie, The Girl Nobody Loved is one of the best books for the abused and those who wish to get in touch with those you love, for an individual, or a group. If you are struggling to understand, please take the time to read this.



2. What an exceptional story, What an exceptional Lady, What an Awesome God. Why God let this happen is beyond me but how Dorie didn't end up with a victim mentality and a wasted life is only because of God. I love to read accounts of people who came through incredible difficulties with flying colors and best of all attributes their success to God. This is that book. And in reading the other reviews I learned there's even more in another book Dorie wrote. In my prison ministry this book will prayerfully be an inspiration to a young gal who has a similar horror story and needs to know it's possible to overcome. I also read this book in one sitting, about 4 hours, couldn't put it down.
   
   Another benefit I hadn't expected, I'm always analysing what I say and do for my little girl and thinking I'm going to mess her up for life sometimes by not saying or doing the exact right thing all the time. Dorie showed me otherwise. Whereas my little girl in no way will experience anything close to what poor Dorie went through (Lord willing) I pray her walk with our Lord will be as strong and I know He can protect her from my inconsequential by comparison mistakes.



3. I was totally captivated by this book. I read it at one sitting. My heart went out to Dorie as a child and soared with her in her triumphs throughout the book. Although I order the book used, and it was a bit tattered, it did not detract from the content at all. I shall recommend it to many and share with my dear friends.



4. Dorie has been a very very good friend of mine for the past 15 years. The story of her early life is true and tragic, but the second book, No Place to Cry fills in the blanks in the first book. Dorie, The Girl Nobody Loved was published before anyone wrote autobiographically about sexual abuse. As Dorie has courageously opened these chapters of her life, so has the Lord opened her world wide ministry of speaking. She has been 12 times around the world telling of the sexual abuse, the damage of shame and the way the Lord has brought change in her life by facing the past. I often tell her that her book needs to be renamed, The Woman Everybody Loves. She is loved and is hugged by more people than could ever be counted. She is truly a picture of the grace of God and the fact that He delights in taking what others meant for evil and turning it into good.



5. Hi my name is Alex and i love this Book !! My health teacher read part of it in my Health class .I think this is such a good book it is when your 13 ..... I love this book I think it is soo sad but I love how she knew the lord was there ... It is soooo sad but it is a excellent book I want this soo much I love it @!!

5 comments about A Long Retreat: In Search of a Religious Life.

1. My thanks to Andrew Krivak for sharing his powerful journey! I benefited from learning about the discernment process of the Jesuits, how vocations are developed, and how very important the relationships between the "baby" Jesuits are. As a Catholic and a someone familiar with his region of Pennsylvania, his story hit home as a powerful & poignant read graced with poetic language I will revisit often.



2. A LONG RETREAT is a fascinating look at formation in the Society of Jesus. The title of the book alludes to the Thirty Day Retreat that is a part of the beginning and end of Jesuit formation, but it's also a metaphor for his eight years author Andrew Krivak spent in a Jesuit formation program. We meet him as he is about to begin his journey with the Jesuits and continue with him as he begins his theological studies as he draws closer to priesthood. He discusses the discernment process as he enters the order and also the same discernment process that eventually led him to a vocation outside of the order.
   
   Krivak shares a number of experiences and anecdotes about formation with the reader that shows how the writings of St. Ignatius of Loyola and Ignatian spirituality are lived in a day to day context. We also see his initial enthusiasm fro religious life and believe he will persevere as a Jesuit, yet as the book continues, we also begin to see he may be called elsewhere. He also discusses a number of conflicts he has, some rather serious, others trivial, so we always remember we are accompanying someone who is very human.
   
   The story contained in A LONG RETREAT is compelling, Krivak tells it in a somewhat poetic manner with beautiful writing. He also writes it in a memoir style rather than a biographical one so the reader enters into his experiences and shares his joys, struggles, and pain. It is also unique in that we hear about the formation process from someone who does not finish with priesthood, and is able to see and share the lessons he learned during his time as a Jesuit. It is also refreshing to read an account of someone who left religious life has his appreciation of both the Jesuits and Catholic Church. While it is not uncommon for a person to have this perspective, all too often the horror stories are the accounts that make it into print which give a somewhat biased and skewed perspective. This is not the case in A LONG RETREAT. If anything, I believe we can expect to see Andrew Krivak become an important Catholic writer.



3. Wonderful memoir! Very well written and poetically conveyed journey. Clear and aesthetically pleasing in its own distillation of the lifestyle and ritual, but also containing many subtle themes which seem to cut across many religious cultures and spiritual journeys. Krivak has written an unassuming and honest story. There is no arrogance of certainty which other authors sometimes seem to portray. Krivak's story is believable and passionate. Thoroughly enjoyed from beginning to end and would recommend to anyone inclined to spiritual connection and understanding, whether religious or not.



4. I must admit I like books about people who embark on vocations, religious and otherwise. So no surprise that I wanted to read this book. I've met a few Jesuits, including one enrolled in my doctoral program many years ago
   (he dropped out the first year) and one who (I suspect) was asked to leave.
   
   This book is less about a spiritual journey than a detailed, blow-by-blow account of life in the contemporary post-Berrigan Jesuit order. Frankly, the life seems mostly pleasant, or else the author had such a strong vocation he rolled with the punches. And it's likely the arduous selection process worked.
   
   I must admit I skimmed some of the spiritual angst and introspection sections, but there really weren't very many. Krivak tells a story of very smart, sane superiors, some really satisfying friendships, and meaningful work experiences. Except for some bad food here and there (and escape to the local steak house often was possible), and an uncomfortable bed or two, I didn't get a sense of hardship. Sure, he didn't get his first choice of teaching jobs, but to be able to teach English and writing at all would be a rare privilege for many professors and doctoral candidates out there.
   
   Since the jacket blurb refers to Krivak's new life as husband and father, it's probably not giving away the store to say that he ultimately fell in love and left the order. As his wife noted, he seemed to be more interested in writing and less in being a Jesuit.
   
   I see parallels between his life and the life of Karen Armstrong. I believe both made wise decisions to enter religious orders (call it a true vocation if you like). Both went on to use their experiences to build new lives and careers. Armstrong of course calls herself a "freelance monotheist" while Krivak, at least by the end of the book, remains firmly Catholic.
   
   With my own interest in career patterns and shifts, I enjoyed watching Krivak as he went on the journey.



5. Andrew Krivak's eight-year journey into, through, and out of the life of a Jesuit seminarian is captured in a memoir of poignancy, generosity, and spectacularly wonderful writing. He details with great honesty and sustaining intelligence the external challenges of his formation in the Society of Jesus (graduate philosophical studies, hospital work with AIDS patients, Russian language study in Moscow, and college teaching among other experiences). But, even more importantly, Krivak testifies with conviction about the movements of his own heart and soul as he struggled with the nature of his calling, the meaning of love, and his efforts in prayer and meditation to discern the full dimensions and import of his doubts and fears. One of the most remarkable spiritual autobiographies since Merton's SEVEN STOREY MOUNTAIN. An utterly captivating volume. I expect to read it again simply to savor the extraordinary beauty of the writing once more. (Disclosure: As a Jesuit myself, I knew Krivak during two years covered in this book. But, I've had no contact with him in over a decade and didn't quite know what to expect before picking up A LONG RETREAT. I'm so happy I did.)

5 comments about Meeting Faith: The Forest Journals of A Black Buddhist Nun.

1. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about this book. I am still reading it, but I look forward to reading a little more every day. It's a very interesting look into a lifestyle most people probably don't ordinarily get to learn about. The story of Faith's time as a Buddhist nun (particularly as a western woman engaging in this practice) is intriguing to say the least, but also the other details about Thailand in general and the social status of women at the time (especially women who become nuns) are fascinating as well. I recommend this book if you're interested in: spirituality, travel/Thailand, and/or women's issues.



2. As a biracial child of a struggling, single mother in a remote Washington state farming community populated almost entirely by white farmers, their families and their Mexican employees, Faith Adiele became familiar very early in life with race and class differences. In high school, as part of cultural-exchange programs, she visited Mexico and Thailand. In both countries, her experiences fueled her growing outspokenness on issues of race, poverty, and women's rights.
   
   A bright child and a gifted student, Adiele found her way paved way to Harvard but as her university career began was struggling with a ferocious set of personal demons. She discovered quickly that her own biracial background and rural upbringing made her experience of being an African-American utterly unlike that of her black classmates. "My entire identity was in opposition to what was around me," she says of those days. "I didn't have the tools to dissect what was going on in this very segregated community."
   
   Scared, exhausted and unmotivated, she found herself enrolling in a study-abroad program sponsored by the University of Washington, making her second visit to Thailand to develop a sociology project studying Buddhist nuns. Once there, she made an almost spur-of-the-moment decision to undergo ordination herself, but for scholarly rather than religious reasons: she wanted to experience the nuns' lifestyle firsthand. Doing so, she hoped, would allow her to "challenge traditional anthropological methodology and understand the women I was presuming to write about."
   
   Adiele, a Unitarian who had never before meditated, would later write: "Only after ordaining did I discover -- to my horror -- that I'd chosen to reside in an intensive meditation retreat," meaning that she could expect to spend up to 19 hours a day in contemplative activities. Bald and browless -- like many Buddhist nuns, she was required to shave off the trappings of vanity -- she spent two months in a forest temple, learning the intricacies of purposeful, mindful, seemingly simple living. She rose at 3:30 each morning, donned a heavy, full-length white robe, spent long hours in silent sitting and walking meditation sessions, and got by on a single, pre-noon daily meal of rice and vegetables. The adjustment was a huge struggle for Adiele's very young and, as she puts it, very Western mind and body.
   
   Despite the emotionally and physically unsettling process of settling into monastic life, Adiele found that her time in Thailand offered a peculiar kind of respite. In a place that, in those days, had limited exposure to African Americans, she was merely "different," rather than the target of preconceptions based on race. Most importantly, she discovered that spiritual practice, with its conflicts and struggles, means moving toward self-awareness and inner peace. These lessons, she says, strengthened her resolve to work against racism and sexism. "When I read about the Buddhist quest, I realized that it was also the black quest, [or] the women's quest."
   
   "Meeting Faith" chronicles her months in the temple and her attempts, failures, and painfully-achieved successes at living the Buddhist monastic life. The main text, extracted from the journals she kept in Thailand, is a detailed, often emotional narrative of her experiences. A second column, in the margins, includes instructions and admonitions from the temple's head nun, along with excerpts from Adiele's research materials on Asian women, Thai culture, and the role of women in Theravada Buddhism. The resulting story moves between the author's intensely personal voice, the somewhat detached tone of social-science tomes, the head nun's prodding encouragement, the reverent clarity of Buddhist texts, and the concrete details drawn from other sources. Adiele says the technique allows readers to follow and feel her ordination experience in a far-off, unfamiliar place, and to be "disoriented and overwhelmed" -- just as she was.
   
   "Meeting Faith" is a funny, bittersweet, observant memoir by Adiele, today an English professor at the University of Pittsburgh, that offers a warm and witty accounting of an unusual woman's spiritual journey and search for identity between the vastly different cultures of East and West. I recommend "Meeting Faith" to anyone interested in learning more about Buddhism, its monastic institutions, the role of women in that great tradition or about Thai culture and lifestyles. This was a wonderful, "delicious" read, and a difficult book to put down; I very much look forward to reading anything that Faith Adiele may choose to write in the future.



3. I found the title of this book on a fluke, but checked it out of the library. OMG. After three renewals at the library I had to purchase a copy through Amazon. The author's experience in finding hereself in a free, spiritual way with no set rules is overwhelming. It has very good information on how anyone can look at life and find their way to peace of mind and acceptance of life.



4. Having read Adiele's essay in The Best Women's Travel Writing of 2005, I was disappointed in the structure of her book. The side page commentaries were distracting and sometimes didn't match the page they were on. The book contained a lot of factual journal entries but very little depth of insight or application to her life for the future. I found some flashback memories to 'prior to ordination' not attached to the context of that chapter. Some good writing, some good story telling. The book didn't live up to the section chosen for the book mentioned above. Kay Klinkenborg, Springfield, IL



5. Although Buddhism is one of the major world religions, many of us in the Western world are woefully ignorant of even the basic tenants of this faith. Faith Adiele leads us on an insightful journey into Buddhism, sharing both her personal journey and her understanding of Buddhist discipline. This is a well-written, well organized book that should be of interest to those interested in expanding their religious horizons.

5 comments about The Intimate Merton: His Life from His Journals.

1. In Notebook 17, Merton writes "I am thrown into contradiction:/ to realize it is a mercy,/ to accept it is love,/ to help others do the same is compassion." (269) From a year or two before he died, this recognition shows what his journals, excerpted here from the seven complete volumes, chart. These take you beyond the more familiar writings that made Merton famous, and show by extension his more frail, doubting, and pensive side.
   
   These pages begin in 1939-41, as he wrestles with being rejected by the Franciscans, works with the poor, reads and thinks at Columbia and upstate New York, and decides to enter the Trappists. His fervor as a recent convert energizes his visit to Cuba. He is full of ideas and energy, but seeks and needs focus. Early on, he realizes the trouble with a journal. If it's written for publication, "then you can tear pages out of it, emend it, correct it, write with art. If it is a personal document, every emendation amounts to a crisis of conscience and a confession, not an artistic correction."(12/4/1940; p. 21) He decides to keep his diary for posterity, for others to read.
   
   The second chapter, although dated 1941-1952, begins five years after his entrance to the Order, at the end of 1946. He has written his soon to be bestselling memoir, and prepares for the fame that he desires but recoils from. His ordination in 1949 enlivens his spirits, and monastery at this point has not wearied him. Even then, the wish for solitude begins to take hold, to be apart from what will be, in the wake of "The Seven Storey Mountain," a rush of aspirants for Gethsemani Abbey. Ironically or justifiably, he will be appointed Master of Novices and later of Scholastics, the students attracted by his very writings. Surprisingly, he writes little of the daily conferences and dealings with his fellow monks in this journal, perhaps out of respect for their confidings, but also, one suspects, out of a disenchantment with the noise, the cheese factory, the tractors and the press of new faces into what had been for him the place where he sought to be alone with God.
   
   This contradiction drives him towards a hermitage on the property, a compromise he battles out. He is famous, and he seeks anonymity. He wants a public to speak to, and welcomes visits. He learns that his freedom allows him to go out on the town with his friends, and temptations will arise as his freedom increases, and his vocation is crucially tested.
   
   1951 sparks a burst of mystical longing. His journals become more contemplative, as his time alone increases and his duties to the Abbey lessen somewhat. By the mid-1950s, he is living full-time at the hermitage. He thrives on study and contemplation. "Perhaps the Book of Life, in the end, is the book of what one has lived, and, if one has lived nothing, he is not in the Book of Life."(7/17/1956) He reads wisdom from the Eastern Christian and Asian traditions.
   
   Musings on Boris Pasternak, Marxism and Latin American struggles begin to enter his journal, followed by Civil Rights and antiwar activist reports. He wishes to be drawn into the world he once thought he would and could leave behind. His advice is sought out by many, and the retreat becomes instead a visitor's center. This is partially by choice, and partially by fame.
   
   The reforms of Vatican II appear to have come slowly to the Order and not altogether smoothly. He laments the end of Latin prayers and Gregorian chant; he records Dan Berrigan saying a non-canonical Mass circa `66 that presages the daring poses of relevance that unsettle Merton, who eschews violence and grandstanding by his more radical, media-hungry, confreres.
   
   But, he knows that he can no longer remain within the walls of the monastery in this time of change and tumult. He wrestles with loyalties. On the fourteenth anniversary of his ordination, he feels defeated. Untraditional, unable to conform, he agonizes. "Perhaps that is good. I am not a J.F. Powers character. But the frustration is the same." Although neither Greene's whiskey priest nor a despairing curate as in Bernanos, his sincerity seems a charade. He acts a lie. Depressions grow as he nears fifty. "People think I am happy." He does seek solace in the Mass. "I suppose that in the end what I have done is that I have resisted the superimposition of a complete priestly form, a complete monastic pattern. I have stubbornly saved myself from becoming absorbed in the priesthood, and I do not know if this was cowardice or integrity. There seems to be no real way for me to tell." (5/26/1963; pp. 206-7) The next few years of revolt and reaction outside the monastery and travel within and beyond its no longer totally enclosed walls will test his indecision severely and unexpectedly.
   
   He falls in love and- although not explicitly stated in these excerpts- consummates a relationship with a nurse who seems about half his age, who cares for him in a Louisville hospital in the spring of 1966. These are the most human and gripping entries of the volume. We witness in the first-person- if at an oblique angle that increases the perspective of realism-- an intelligent, tender, and righteous man break his vows, and then his promises to renew his commitment at great personal and psychic and physical sacrifice. He learns to treat "M" with dignity and does the right thing by her and himself, and reconciles his failing with the immediate joy he has foolishly if understandably embraced briefly.
   
   In his fifth decade, Merton grows up. "Vocation is more than just a matter of being in a certain place and wearing a certain type of costume. There are too many people in the world who rely on the fact that I am serious about deepening an inner dimension of experience that they desire and is closed to them. It is not closed to me: this is a gift that has been given me not for myself but for everyone, even including M." Tempted again to sneak into the city to see her, he realizes: "In the end I would ruin her along with myself."(6/22/1966; p. 295) Here, Merton's saintliness shows itself most movingly to me. I recognize my own faults in his, and now realize his own integrity. If you have only read "Seven Storey Mountain," you only know the honeymoon period. The journals show the whole committment, the lifetime after the infatuation wears off.
   
   In November 1968, a month and a day before his death, he records during his visit to the Dalai Lama in exile the three types of "bodhicitta." Kingly ones save one's self and then others. Boatmen ferry themselves with others into salvation. Shepherds guide others first and enter salvation last. I think of Merton, so near unawares his own sudden "liberation," as one who by his writings and example led many into spiritual heights.
   
   These pages record how he labored, lonely among hundreds of other monks. How many, I wonder, who resented his popularity, worshipped his celebrity, or benefitted from his writing and the nights of loneliness that flowed into his pages? He lived as a flawed monk among others no less so, and this obvious but gradual admission comes to bring him and his community and so many other millions of readers the past fifty years the grace to accept the need for guides wiser than us to help lead us into nirvana.
   



2. Rather than review the book _The Intimate Merton_, I have chosen to review the persona who presents himself within these pages. For it is this persona that has attracted readers to his works, and through his works, to his life. If we are to profit at all from a man's personal journals, we must be certain that first he intends to be truthful and forthright about the time's of his life. And we are not to be dissappointed here by the subject of this work, as he assiduously presents his story with his most intimate thoughts.
   
   We see, as the title of this review reflects, a man who has become entranced by his own idea of himself and his vocation, at once both a passionate writer and a solitary monk, bound to live the same day over and over again until he got it right. We see this reflected in the editor's introduction when they say: "He got up and fell down, he got up and fell down, he got up over and over again." He was as much a product of his times and the events that molded and influenced him as he was a simple human being longing for release. Only toward the end of his life, though, did he begin to travel down the road toward learning about who he really was, as opposed to the persona he carried around with him the majority of his life. His journals, condensed here from the seven that were ultimately published, are a testiment to how not to lead the spiritual life, and for that honesty of truthfulness with which these entries are presented, we are in debt to the man himself.
   
   What the reader learns of Thomas Merton the man and the Trappist monk is that he was as sincere about what he wanted to accomplish with his life as he was in leaving us with a candid accounting of that life. His sincere wish can be summed up in an entry made in December of 1946 in which he states: "Meanwhile, for myself I have only one desire, and that is the desire for solitude -- to disappear into God, to be submerged in His peace, to be lost in the secret of His Face." What we learn about the truth of this sentiment is that Merton spent the majority of his twenty-seven years as a monk searching for that silence of peace into which to merge himself, but that he only on rare occasions found it. For the most part, his days were taken up with endless rounds of duties and projects which kept him busy and estranged from the solitude which he sought, and yet it was only in the final years of his life that he was finally able to begin to realize that solitude through having separated himself from the monastic community at Gethsemani and living at a private hermitage on the property.
   
   We are shown this through such passages as the following, in which a forty-eight year old Merton laments the anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood: "Today is the fourteenth anniversary of my Ordination to the priesthood. . . . I have certainly not fitted into the conventional -- or even traditional -- mold. Perhaps that is good. I am not a J. F. Powers character. Yet the frustration is the same. (I do not know if I am a George Bernanos character. I am not a Graham Greene character.) But this business of defeat is there and I see it is perhaps in some way permanent. As if in a way my priestly life has been sad and fruitless -- the defeat and failure of my monastic life. (Perhaps. For after all how do I know?) I have a very real sense that it has all been some kind of a lie, a charade. With all my blundering attempts at sincerity, I have actually done nothing to change this."
   
   Repeatedly, we are shown instances of this kind of self-admonishment throughout the latter sections of the book, and after a while, we begin to wonder "will he ever learn?" In that same journal entry we find the following, perhaps unparalleled in its honesty and self-disgust in the annals of autobiographical works: "Probably the chief weakness has been lack of real courage to bear up under the attention of monastic and priestly life. Anyway, I am worn down. I am easily discouraged. The depressions are deeper, more frequent. I am near fifty. People think I am happy." This was Merton as he appeared to himself on his worst days. Fortunately for him, these moments were as fleeting and impermanent as the very thoughts that went into expressing them. And yet his genius is that he shows us his struggle, time and again, to bear up under the task he has outlined for himself.
   
   He is aware that his life is artificial in many ways and that the circumstances under which he has agreed to live have contributed to this artificialness. "I am convinced that the tensions of our community life are delusions and obsessions because of the unreality of our activities -- the basic unreality of our relationships. Unreal because much too artificial and contrived." Yet we see by these many observations that he is honestly seeking to evaluate his life in the manner of a genuine contemplative.
   
   On occasion, he shows us some glimmer of hope as in the following entry from June of 1963: "Identity. I can see now where the work is to be done. I have been coming here into solitude to find myself, and now I must also lose myself: not simply rest in the calm, the peace, the identity that is made up of my experienced relationship with nature in solitude. This is healthier than my 'identity' as a writer or a monk, but it is still a false identity, though it has a temporary meaning and validity. It is the cocoon that masks the transition stage between what crawls and what flies." It was during this next period of his life, the last five years, that he began coming upon some of the ideas that helped him to begin putting the pieces of his life's puzzle together.
   
   As it is always darkest before the dawn, at the turn of the year to 1964 we find the forty-nine year old Merton once again lamenting his situation: ". . . twenty-two years of relative confusion, often coming close to doubt and infidelity, agonized aspirations for 'something better,' criticism of what I have, inexplicable inner suffering that is largely my own fault, insufficient efforts to overcome myself, inability to find my way, perhaps culpably straying off into things that do not concern me." Yet even here he is on the brink of a discovery, for just a few short weeks later his contemplations begin to yield some much needed light. The darkness begins to lift ever so slightly as he makes the realization that his "real self" was nothing other than "the self that one is. . . . However, the emperical self is not to be taken as fully 'real' either. Here is where the illusion begins." It is during this time period that he begins to explore the religious traditions of China, Tibet, Japan, and ancient India, and the light that he has been seeking is about to dawn for him.
   
   Yet for all his spiritual wandering during the next few years, for all his reading and digesting of new concepts and writing books on Taoism and Zen Buddhism, the hold and lure of Christian imagery and conceptual iconography keeps calling him back over and over again. When all else fails comprehension, he returns to the familiar. Even so, his subconscious mind is working on all he is learning, churning it over, integrating certain ideas, seeking for common ground with the already familiar.
   
   For perhaps the first time in his monastic career, he was beginning to realize what his real work in this contemplative tradition was all about: "It would do no good to anyone if I just went around talking -- no matter how articulately -- in this condition. There is still so much to learn, so much deepening to be done, so much to surrender. . . . The best thing I can give to others is to liberate myself from the common delusions and be, for myself and for them, free. Then grace can work in and through me for everyone." He added the preceding journal entry in late June of 1968, just a little over five months before his untimely passing. And what is sad is that he was never to realize this accomplishment in his lifetime. And yet in the same breath, what was hopeful is that he realized this -- what he needed to accomplish -- before his passing, as he wrote in July of that same year: "I have to go my own way in terms of needs that to me are fundamental: need to live a life of prayer, need to liberate myself from my own 'cares' and 'unique' need for authentic monastic solitude (not mere privacy), and need for a real understanding and use of Asian insights in religion."
   
   He arrived in the Orient in October of 1968, where he was to spent the better part of two months meeting with various Eastern religious, including an unprecedented three audiences with the Dalai Lama. His experience in the Orient was a much needed education for Merton as he began to reassess his own possibilities for his continuation in the contemplative life back home. Far from being indisputably drawn to the East, his roots were calling him back to the West. But it would not be the same there as it had been. There would of necessity need to be changes made in order to suit his new understanding of what he needed to accomplished. Ironically, he was never to return to Kentucky and the monastery at Gethsemani, but rather to end his days in Bangkok, accidentally electrocuted on December 10th, 1968. On that day he found peace from this life.



3. Last May I visited Gethsemane Abbey where Thomas Merton lived his life as a monk. I wanted the opportunity to see Thomas Merton's hermitage, where he wrote some of his greatest writings. I guess the image of the writer in me decided that I would be inspired by visiting the beloved private space of one of the twentieth century's most famous and influential spiritual writers. I'd be inspired to finish my novel, write a spiritual treatise or two, and it would all be due to my visit to Merton's hermitage. Far fetched? Perhaps, but you'd be surprised at the ideas that come to mind after driving from Boston to Bardstown, Kentucky, alone. Sixteen hours of driving spread over two days can produce all sorts of grand ideas. Well, the hermitage was in use and I wouldn't be able to visit it and since I was at the abbey for a retreat, the hermitage would probably have been a distraction. Anyone who has ever read Merton knows what he thought of distractions, so it was probably in keeping with the spirit of Merton's life and message that I didn't visit the hermitage, but something interesting did happen when I was visiting. I went for a walk and passed through the cemetery where the monks are buried. I wasn't paying all that much attention but I did look down and saw a simple white cross with the name Fr. Louis and the year 1968 on it. I was standing where Thomas Merton was buried. Suddenly a man I admired as a priest, writer, and person seemed more real and human which is what I believe gives Merton such an appeal to so many. He knew what the human heart was searching for, which is the appeal of his writings, yet he was not some sort of remote guru. He was human like everyone else and had his triumphs, but also his struggles.
   
   Thomas Merton's diaries are essential for understanding Merton. He kept journals throughout his lifetime, and many of his entries have been published. The earlier entries are somewhat pious and sanitized, due to his initial monastic fervor and the fact that his superiors were his final editors. Sometimes the superiors are accused of censoring, and Merton himself believes this from time to time, but it really wasn't censoring as we think of it, at least in the United States. He was allowed to write for the good of the Trappist order and the Abbey of Gethsemane, not for his own fulfillment, so those who asked him to write for this purpose did have the right to say what would and would not be for the good of the order. Yes they were too restrictive, and no doubt they deleted essential information that is now lost, but that was the reality of religious life at the time. As the rules became more relaxed, Merton's writings expressed more of his struggles, foibles, and the challenges he faced in life. The later journal entries are hardly the sanitized entries that make up THE SIGN OF JONAS. Brother Patrick Hart and Jonathan Montaldo have edited what remains of Merton's journals and the result is a seven volume set of Merton's most personal writings. THE INTIMATE MERTON contains excerpts from the seven volumes that give the reader a general idea of Merton's life from his point of view and give the readers a glimpse behind the great writer and spiritual figure.
   
   This particular volume arranges the materials chronologically and presents the material in the order in which it was written rather than piecing the entries together to form a biography. Some of the entries are mini-masterpieces, others are almost fragments, but anyone who has kept a journal knows that this is part of journaling.
   
   I do have one suggestion for readers who purchase this book. Make sure you have a basic outline of Merton's life available when reading this volume. The editors have decided to let Merton's writings stand on their own, but for people not familiar with Merton's life and writings, it's easy to get lost. There is very little biographical information in the book which can make the information a bit overwhelming. If the book contained a few paragraphs of commentary at the beginning of each section to situate the reader, it would be helpful, but even without the commentary, it's a great introduction to the journals of Thomas Merton.



4. The book `The Intimate Merton', edited by Brother Patrick Hart and Jonathan Montaldo, is a great encapsulation of the journals which Thomas Merton, monk, writer, activist and spiritual guide (I believe he would eschew the word leader, kept from the time he began considering a vocation (both as a monk and as a writer) to the time of his death nearly thirty years later.

   The book is broken into sections reflective of Merton's monastic life. Each section is composed of selections, representative and/or significant, from his regular daily journals. Merton actually kept voluminous journals (published in seven thick volumes), much of which served as a basis and self-reflective sounding board for his other writings. This book is a user-friendly spiritual autobiography, distilled from the wisdom gained over twenty-nine years of teaching, prayer, reflection, prayer, writing, prayer, activity, and yet more prayer.

   Merton was not (and still is not) universally loved, even by the church and monastic hierarchies who claim him as a shining example of one of their own. Merton's life is a quest for meaning, and quest for unity before God of all peoples, and a quest for love. These were not always in keeping with the practices of the church, which found itself more often than Merton cared for embroiled in political action in support of the state, or at least the status quo.

   Merton was a Trappist monk. The Trappists derive their name from la Trappe, the sole survivor of a reformed Cistercian order in France about the time of the Revolution. This order of Cistercians (white-robed monks) had fairly strict observances which included the usual monastic trappings of vows of chastity, stability, obedience, poverty -- and a regime of prayer and psalm recitals coupled with daily work and study that is not at all for the faint-hearted (or faint-spirited). It was to this order that Merton pledged himself, in his beginning search for meaning and fulfillment.

   `The great work of sunrise again today.
   The awful solemnity of it. The sacredness. Unbearable without prayer and worship. I mean unbearable if you really put everything aside and see what is happening! Many, no doubt, are vaguely aware that it is dawn, but they are protected from the solemnity of it by the neutralising worship of their own society, their own world, in which the sun no longer rises and sets.'

   Poetry in prose -- this passage, from the section on The Pivotal Years, reflects a searching nearing a conclusion, but still far from grasping, and far from complete. It also reflects the need for sharing, the drive toward caring, the simplest of things in the world, available to all, free of charge -- and most will never take possession.

   God is calling in the sunrise. Merton recognises the call. He wants to deliver this sunrise in a package to the world. But he cannot. This is Merton's endless frustration, and the drive to do more, while yet being, as he would say himself, selfish in wanting to grasp it for himself, too. His time in the Hermitage, a time during which he was removed even from the company of fellow monks -- reflects this duality of vocation in Merton. He recognises that in some ways, it is an escape, but other ways, a fulfillment.

   Even late in his life, after he was called away from his solitude at the Hermitage, because the world needed him, he was still humble and seeking. After nearly three decades of monastic practice and reflection on the level that Merton had done, one would expect a certain 'expertise' to have permeated his thinking. And yet, he would write:

   `I have to change the superficial ideas and judgments I have made about the contemplative religious life, the contemplative orders. They were silly and arbitrary and without faith.'

   This, on the basis of one retreat in December of 1967, with laypersons and clerics and monastics outside his Trappist order -- this is his conclusion, his resolute determination to not be boxed in, even by his own thinking. The true search can lead anywhere, even to the conclusion that one has been wrong all along.

   And yet, Merton was not wrong. There was value in each of his spiritual discoveries as he discovered them. They still resonate for all of us today.

   `Since Hayden Carruth's reprimand I have had more esteem for the crows around here, and I find, in fact, that we seem to get on much more peacefully. Two sat high in an oak beyond my gate as I walked on the brow of the hill at sunrise saying the Little Hours. They listened without protest to my singing of the antiphons. We are part of a menage, a liturgy, a fellowship of sorts.'

   Near the end of his life, Merton was becoming more and more one with all around him, with all of God's creation, with nature, with people, with friends and strangers. And yet, he missed his privacy, his time for personal reflection and solitude.

   `Everyone now knows where the hermitage is, and in May I am going to the convent of the Redwoods in California. Once I start traveling around, what hope will there be?'

   Merton had premonitions that 1968 was a year `that things are finally and inexorably spelling themselves out', prophetic indeed, for in the same year the world lost Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy, and Brother Thomas Merton. He never was able to reclaim the solitude, pouring himself out for his friends ('what greater love hath anyone...'), who he counted as the entire world.

   May Brother Thomas' journey enlighten your own.




5. One may wonder why another book on Thomas Merton, one of the most self-chronicled lives of the twentieth century, is needed, but The Intimate Merton serves a valuable purpose. Only academics and fanatical devotees of the famous writer and monk will have the time and interest to read all seven volumes of his personal journals. And yet, as this selection of entries from them demonstrates, Merton's journals are a treasury of autobiographical revelation, psychological honesty, and spiritual insight.
   
   Just a few of the more memorable entries justify the book. These include an hilarious account of Merton the non-driver taking a jeep for a spin, a beautiful description of a night watch as a dark night of the soul, and Merton's sober yet grateful meditations on his 50th birthday.
   
   Nevertheless, it is the sweep of years, the chronicle of a soul, that make these meditations most interesting. The Intimate Merton wisely focuses on the journal entries from the 1960s, material not covered by The Seven Storey Mountain and other earlier works. Thus we see a self-portrait of the older Merton wrestling with his need to be an individual versus his need to love and be loved, fitfully learning to accept his failures and to appreciate the gifts of others, and searching for his home in this world and beyond.
   
   Thomas Merton was a complicated, Thoreauvian figure who considered himself to be, among other things, an "amateur theologian." Yet an amateur is essentially a lover, and Merton, for all his faults and doubts, was certainly a lover of God. Other lovers of God will enjoy tracing his spiritual journey through these pages.