xt73j9608q91 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt73j9608q91/data/mets.xml  Thomas Merton 1965-08-28 This letter is from collection 75m28 Thomas Merton papers. archival material 75m28 English  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Thomas Merton correspondence Letter from Thomas Merton to Victor Hammer, August 28, 1965 text Letter from Thomas Merton to Victor Hammer, August 28, 1965 1965 1965-08-28 2023 true xt73j9608q91 section xt73j9608q91 +
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Dear Victor:

Thanks for your very good letter about the qymbolism notes. 7 knew you wowld like
them. I agree with your remarks on ornatus. In the Vulgate text of uenesis on
creation, God is xwwaking spoken of as finishing the heavens and earth and all their
ornatus. I think that a lot of the austeritv so cal_led of the moderns is“?ust a nose
in part at least. But of course there is a justifiable, though nerhans not always
reasonable, reaction against false ornamentation. well, in this as in evervthine
else, we are in turmoil today, and no one really knows t‘e full erolanation, exact
except that we can say it is a manifestation of sin: thenrimal sin of hubris and of
making ourselves the becinning and the end of everything, collectively, as a race,
and as individuals.

Well, one reason why I have not written is that it took time to get all my
affairs in the novitiate settled and move comnletely to the hermitape. T have been
here in practically complete solitude for a week now, going down to the monasterv
once a day only to say Mass and get one cooked meal. I hardly see anybody, even in
the community. I can see that this kind of life is not altogether easy, but it is
what has been aopointed for me by God and it is what I will try to do to the best of
my ability. I do not claim to understand all the ins and outs of it, but I can see
that it is a real and unCOmprOmising task, and therefore must be done, whereas for me
what was going on Xb in the monastery was not, annarently, that much to the nofint, thouch
I cannot criticize anyone or anything.

I don't know whether this means the end of your visits over here, I have not
gone into all the details of that. I hope the door is still open and I think it is,
but I do not think we should olan anything right away. I am sure there will be more
oneortunities. We'll see.

The writing, of course, continues.

One thing I miss, having had to change from the novitiate Chanel to another nlace
for my “ass, I no longer say ”ass before your srwfix crucifix. T miss it verv much,
it had come to be a very immortant element in mv worship. Vow I am in another quite
different sort of nlace, modern,in both good and bad senses, with one of those twisted
metal Christs they do these days (some brother made it) and I am afraid the effect is
not at all the same. I may have some taste for some modern art but so far none of the
so called modern "sacred" art has mad the slightest anneal to me. I think it is
grotesque and pretentious, for the most nart, and a nose. I have no narfiinlar choice
in this, as this is the best olace for mv Mass according to the time at which T say it.

I think often of you and Carolyn and wish T could see you, but we must wait.

My health is pretty good, and being in the herritaoe certainlv seems to have imnroved
it, at any rate. I will refrain from eating too much of mv own cooking, and thus be
safe. Being pulled this way and that in community was not much of a heln and it is
good to get to a comoletely urified and nrimitive life. It is strange to think that one
is one of the few neople in our society actual"!v livinv such a life today. Father an

awesome resnOnsibilit . Or not. I don't know. God bless you. Keen well and rested.
And work, and write w en you can. All the best always, i_n theI .or

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