xt7bnz80pc68 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7bnz80pc68/data/mets.xml  Thomas Merton 1961-01-09 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, January 9, 1961 text Letter from Thomas Merton to Victor Hammer, January 9, 1961 1961 1961-01-09 2023 true xt7bnz80pc68 section xt7bnz80pc68 __P_
E7

ABBEY OF GETHSEMANI

TRAPPI ST, KENTUCKY

Jan . 9, 1961

Dear Victor:

Thanks for your good note. Next Saturday the fourteenth would be a
very good day. I hope this letter gets off to you immediately to tell you
I will be expecting you Saturday at the regular time.

There is one little hitch: the hermitage has now been put out of
bounds to the ladies, as of January lst. Thisninvolves the immediate enclosure
of the hermitage, i.e. the fence at the top of the hill. However the road is
in no condition for driving whether with a station wagon or a Volkswagen or
anything else. I just don't think there is any way of getting up there
with a car. Only a jeep or tractor could make it.

The reason why Father Abbot put the place under enclosure is that
too many monks were getting the idea that it would be a nice place to show
their aunts, mothers, sisters, grandmothers and great grandnothers and it
would not have been possible to maintain it forits proper purpose under such con
ditions. I tried to get a special exception made for my own friends and above
all for Carolyn but it was not accepted. maturally that is logical, because
once it was seen that some women went there then the whole thing would start
over again. But I am very sorry we won't be able to get togethhr for lunch on
David's excellent new table which is very fine and I like it more and more.

So we will just have to walk quietly up the hill, you and I, and look at
the situation, and Carolyn can wait for us and read a magazine, if she will.
Please thank her for thebcoks she has sent and for considering the others
as possible for the future. I am very grateful.
I want to get this note off at once, so I close now with all
blessings.

Very cordially, as ever,
in Christ