Originally published at Ignatian Spirituality
Thomas Merton’s hermitage
Why can’t I hear God’s voice? Can I linger a little longer in my daily prayers? I fall short of my desire to access something deeper than my own wants and needs. I have been to that deeper place and have felt the oneness and heard the whispers meant for only me. I ask God, How can I heed your will if I cannot hear your voice? What does it take to rekindle my desire to desire you and to open the channel between you and me?
In answer, God calls me to a pilgrimage with 11 others from the Center for Spiritual Wisdom to the Abbey of Gethsemani, where the 20th-century Trappist monk, mystic, and author Thomas Merton lived, prayed, and wrote more than 60 books. Merton’s autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, is considered one of the top spiritual books of the last century. Spiritual thinkers and writers still look to his books for insight into the false self and true self, contemplation practices, and surrender.
Merton’s writings reveal him to desire God powerfully and to face familiar struggles in his prayer life. His words land on my prayer struggles with precision:
Only save me from myself.
