Merton & Prayer

I came across a book about Thomas Merton's way of prayer the other day. 

Editor Kathleen Deignan shows how Merton made contemplative prayer accessible to the ordinary person by revealing how to use the different hours of the day to become quiet, to become conscious of God's presence, and to pray with an abandon to the Spirit within. The small book, called A Book of Hours, is divided into the four times of the day-- dawn, midday, dusk and night, with psalms, readings, prayers, intercessions and periods of silence. Deignan has gleaned the best of Merton's writings to appeal to the ordinary Christian.

The book reads like poetry and allows for the reader's own reflections and thoughts. It often feels as if Merton is directly talking to us like a spiritual director. One example of the book's poetry is this collect:

I send Love's name into the world with wings
And songs grow up around me like a jungle.
Choirs of all creatures send the tunes
your spirit played in Eden.

The text seems as if we are praying along with Merton, and basking in the beauty of his words and thoughts. It often reads like a stream of consciousness that nourishes the hours of the day with spiritual food to surfeit our hunger for God.  

One of my favorite prayers from the book is: "Let go of all that seems to suggest getting somewhere, being someone, having a name and a voice, following a policy and directing people in 'my' ways. What matters is to love."

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