Title: Thoughts in Solitude
Author: Thomas Merton
Pages: 124 pages
Genre: Nonfiction
Count for Year: 7
I picked this book up from our church’s library, because I have read other Merton books, including probably his best-known work The Seven-Storey Mountain, which is his autobiography. That book was one of the main books that helped me consider seriously converting to the Catholic faith, which I did 13 years ago. Since then, I have read other Merton books and always come away from them thinking more deeply about my faith and the world, in general; this book was no different in that regard.
Although written while he was in a monastery and addressed primarily to other monks, Merton posits that solitude is not only for the religious, but also for the laypeople and that we can find solitude in our everyday life. As over the last eight months, I have been undertaking the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, it is something I am learning to be true.
I will leave you with this paragraph from the book, which for the longest time we had on our refrigerator, and which for me captures the spirit of the book:
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not know the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. And I know that if I do this, you will lead by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore, I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death I will not fear for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face the perils alone.
Final analysis: 9/10. I give it a point off, because occasionally, since written primarily for monks, I didn’t feel as I really could relate. But overall, still a worthwhile book and short too so even if you don’t like it, you won’t feel like you’ve wasted too much time with it.
Thomas Merton is one of my absolute favorites . . . I have read a lot of his books . . . have you checked out Seeds of Contemplation? It’s a little more “mainstream” – you might enjoy it.