The abbey and Merton

This is a nice video that gives an example of the history and how the monastery works. The monastery has a bookstore in it that focuses heavily on Thomas Merton. I am pretty sure that Thomas Merton’s books outnumber pamphlets and encyclicals written by the Pope. However, their understanding of Thomas Merton differs somewhat from how Eric Reece understands Merton. Perhaps the strongest similarity between the monks understanding of Merton and Reece’s is that Merton desired to continue Jesus’s mission of bringing the Kingdom of God to Earth. However, Reece appears to see the restrictions placed on Merton by his abbot as a microcosm for how Merton dealt with the Catholic Church. However, Merton’s censored writings that were not allowed to be published had such a meaningful impact within the Church such that Pope John Paul the Second adopted some of Merton’s ideas.

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