xt7w3r0pw84k https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7w3r0pw84k/data/mets.xml  Thomas Merton 1967-08-22 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 Father Francisco, August 22, 1967 text Letter from Thomas Merton to Father Francisco, August 22, 1967 1967 1967-08-22 2023 true xt7w3r0pw84k section xt7w3r0pw84k .Eaug 22, 1967

Host Reverend and Dear Father:

Since the letter I wrote yesterday was too late for yesterday(s mail
I am adding this one which may perhaps be more succinct and more useful.I
thought of destroying yesterday's letter or entirely rewriting it, but I send
it as it is, in the cups that there may still be some point in it.

Fi.et of all I want to say how touched and grateful 2h 1 am that the Holy
father should remember me, and I will write to him myself to express my
gratitude and devotion.

about the message he asks of us: I should say first of all that it is not

niece to write anything apologetic. line I am sure we all agree that it is

“ us to spell out proofs for the existence fig of God but merely to bear

in our sinplioity to His uniVersal love for all men and His message
t” but above all to His presence in the hearts of all men, including.
ircluding those woo hate Him. Mithout going into taconical distinc—
‘1 natural supernatural, and so on, tuough edphasizing grace later on.
to important thing in our message should it seems to me be orayerand
contemplation. But we must be ooreful not to present prayer as a mere formal
duty or to en hosize prayer of aetitiOn. we s 0‘ d bear in mind that Marx
taught an interesting doctrine about veiigious alienation, which is a conse-
wuence of regarding do; as distant and ourely transCendont and putting all
our hope for every good in the future life, not realising GGW’S yresence to
us in tois life and not realizing that prayer means contact with the deepest
reality of life, our own truth in dim. Also we should perhaps point out that
prayer is the truest guarantee of personal freedom. That we are most truly
free in one free eciounter of our hearts with one in His word and in receiving
Wis Spirit wh on is the spirit of Sunshin. truto aufi freedmm. The Truth that
makes us free is not merely a matter ”v inforuation about God but the presence
in us of a divine person by love and grace, bringing us into the intimate
personal life of God as His Cons by adoption.. This is the basis of all prayer
and all prayer should be oriented to this mystery of sonship in Which the
Spirit in us recognizes the Father. The cry of the Spirit in us, the cry of
recognition that we are Eons in the Son, is the heart of our prayer and the
great motive of prayer. Hence recollection is not the exclusion of material
things but at entiveness to the Spirit in our inmost heart. The contemplative
life should not be regarded as the exclosive prerogative of those who dweel in
monastic walls. All men can seek and find this intimate awareness and awakeni-
ing which is a gift of love and a vivifying touch of creative and refiemptive
power, that cover which raised Christ from the dead and cleanses us from dead
works to serve the living God. Which should remind us also that the monastery
must not be a place of mere "dead works" and that faith is the most important
thing in our lives, not the empty formalities and rites which are mere routines
is not vivifmed bv the living presence of God and by His love which is beyond
all legalism. It should certainly be e3¢hasized today that prayer is a real
source of :ersonel freedom in the midst of a world in which men are dominated
by massive organizations and rigid institutions which seek only to eXploit
them for money and sewer. Far from being the cause of alienation, true re—
ligion in Spirit is a liberating force that helps man to find himself in God.
over

 

 i regret that time does not permit me to write more on this. I feel it
is useless to try ts convey these ideas on paper when it would be much more
worth while to be able to discuss them with you in Living words and work out
with yen and the other fathers just what ought to be said. I will in any case
pray that you may arrive at something corres ending to what the Holy Father
really wants.
With cordial regards in Christ Our flora,