Thomas Merton on the Contemplative Way

Follow the contemplative path with Thomas Merton as your guide.

In 1942, Thomas Merton relinquished a promising academic career to join the Abbey of Gethsemani. Instead of running away from the world, however, he actually developed his most profound wisdom about it.

Now you, too, can share in this wisdom. Thomas Merton on the Contemplative Way contains a compelling set of talks on living contemplatively. In these moving talks, Merton tackles such topics as renewal, prayer, and affirming God. Recorded almost 20 years after The Seven Storey Mountain was published, these talks showcase a mystic at the height of his wisdom.

This series is one of Merton's great masterpieces. Contemplation was perhaps the issue closest to Merton's heart, and he tackles it here with profound insights. You will be enrapt as you listen to Merton deliver these talks with his trademark eloquence and erudition.

While you listen to Merton, you will see him wrestle with the complexities of contemplation. As Merton says, he left the world for the cloistered walls of the monastery to become an explorer of the "rocky land of the soul". But he also acknowledges that the contemplative life is not limited to those in solitude. Indeed, you will discover how we are all called to live contemplatively.

At the heart of these lectures lie a sense of hope and an abiding awareness of God's presence in the world. Let Thomas Merton speak to your soul today.