Exploring the Depths of the Human Spirit: Thomas Merton's 'Thoughts In Solitude'

Walter J. Caywood: This a classic book for good reason. Get and and read (or listen) slowly if interested in learning about prayer in the monastic and contemplative Christian tradition.

United States on Oct 23, 2023

Amazon Customer: Timeless wisdom.

United Kingdom on Jun 03, 2023

Paul Vierra: Easy read with profound statements scattered throughout the work. As relevant today as it was then. It feels like Merton addresses the reader but it’s his inner dialogue with that God he has invited us to listen to and participate in.

United States on Feb 19, 2023

Flash: I am so proud of my Catholic Faith, and I'm glad that I've had Thomas Merton as a kind of spiritual mentor who has helped to guide me back to the sacred nature of my Faith. In an age when the Church has become more of a follower of the world, rather than acting as a leader to the world, Catholics more than ever, need to rediscover the sacred in their Faith. They need to learn to put themselves before God, and to remove all obstacles that keep Him from their hearts.

With Merton, you learn to shut out the noisy world, to enter a solitude that can even be achieved in the midst of our daily lives, that puts God in the center of all things, with the comfort and the knowledge that you are nothing without Him. Merton's guide for meditative prayer is very useful (even if you are not a monk!), with the most important part being that to enter such a state of prayer is not with the goal of finding yourself, and this is a very clear delineation from the Eastern practices of meditation, but rather to let God find you. So many people place things between themselves and God, and often the hardest thing to do is to remove the ego which you've placed between yourself and God.

In this...

United States on Jan 23, 2023

Adele: An amazing collection of spiritual inspiration

Canada on Jun 21, 2021

Kaif Mahmood: The life of solitude is not a dissipation of the passion for life, but rather, an intensification of it. Those who are called to solitude and listen to the call live with an overwhelming passion, a passion that continually renews and brings alive the inner life. The tranquility of non-attachment, the vastness of love, the tears of devotion all come together in these notes by Thomas Merton. This is a set of beautifully eloquent writings on these themes, set in a Christian framework but relatable to anybody who truly responds to the call, whether Christian or not.

India on Jul 01, 2017

Mr Malcolm Cox: Solitude is Golden

A review of “Thoughts in Solitude” (eighteen short chapters on aspects of the spiritual life, and the love of solitude) by Thomas Merton.

Preamble
The world is populated by too many mindless men and women. “Automatons cannot make a society”, and thus we must learn how to choose, and especially how to choose the life of faith. We “cannot choose faith unless we have self determination and freedom.” Solitude is a vital tool in enabling choice - “coming to this place [of ability to choose] requires some solitude”.

Summary
Developing spiritual strength and intimacy with God requires spiritual disciplines. Perhaps solitude is one of the most important and least utilised. Jesus sets the example: “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” (Mark 1:35 NIV11; cf. Luke 5:16). Merton’s message is a challenge to courageously enter the ‘desert’ of solitude, “Man's despair will never be solved by conquering the wilderness with materialism, instead his despair will be solved by embracing the wilderness and it's solitude, and there...

United Kingdom on Mar 23, 2017

Glenn Guillory, SFO: I have kept a copy of this book in reach all my adult life. I'm now 68 and this copy I bought to give to a friend who has converted to Catholicism. It is a great book for those who are finding their religious vocation turns towards contemplation and silence. It is in part triggered by Max Picards THE WORLD OF SILENCE, and takes the reader into the reality of silence, not as something absent but as something active, perpahs creative, perhaps fundamental to human consciousness. Buying this for my friend get me interested in Max Picard's work again, and I searched a used copy of thE WORLD OF SILENCE -- hard to finnd unless you aim to pay a lot -- but this book is great for meditation and soul nurturing in oneself. Much sollace. I would like to add, although I love Picard's book, used it begins to be available about $40, but this book by Merton distills the key elements of THE WORLD OF SILENCE plus adds Merton's unique touch. Merton, novice master for years as a Trappist and his time spent in solitude in a hermitage, all contributes to a wonderful poetic insight into the soul's needs, and that which can touch the soul is defined and offered in terms we all can relate to. I recommend...

United States on Jul 14, 2013

M. J. Robinson: Though pocket-sized the essence of Merton's thoughts on the value of inner solitude in bringing our lives to glorious joyful fruition seep out of the 37 chapters. Solitude is not just a matter of withdrawing from the world - Merton doesn't recommend we all become hermits. Instead he suggests that by deepening our inner lives we are better able to serve the world with more wisdom and joy.

This little book is divided into two parts: 1) Aspects of the spiritual life and 2) The Love of Solitude.

Aspects of spiritual life: This part provides a series of reflections/meditations on such subjects as: the danger of being immersed in unreality; avoiding the abyss or desert of despair; seeing that our temperament is a gift from God and making use of what we have been gifted; being aware that emotions are just as important as reason and that self-denial can be dangerous; suffering is part of life; Spiritual life is not thought alone nor a life a feeling alone - balance is important; real self-conquest comes from the Holy Spirit not from the self; laziness and lack of discipline are blocks in the spiritual life; there is no spiritual life outside the love of Christ; to have a...

United Kingdom on May 20, 2010

Peter Menkin: Moved by this slim volume by Thomas Merton, I found "Thoughts in Solitude" to be worth a second read three years after the initial purchase and first reading. Call this an accidental second reading, and a good accident for I had not planned on revisiting the title. To my pleasure, the book is good if not better the second time around. For I was moved by the love this man holds for God, or held, since he is now many years dead. In this book, he lives, and he is as well as a man of God who sought God, but a writer who has the writer's gift of telling us some of the journey of getting closer to God. Or as he might say, God allowing someone to get closer to Him. That is good news.

Readable, and certainly quick going but the kind of book one goes through "easily," it is a book that allows for reflection. I wondered about humility, and I wondered how in the world could something like humility be available to a layman, especially one who has neither the desire for nor the means of holding and having solitude as did Thomas Merton.

I think Thomas Merton held solitude, as one embraces something, as one would embrace God. As a man or woman comes to Christ. Intangible as that...

United States on Jan 13, 2007