Remembering Thomas Merton

Thomas Merton died on December 10, 1968, eight months after Martin Luther King, Jr. I cannot imagine the grief of their mutual friend who had arranged for King to go on retreat with Merton in April of 1968. To support the striking sanitation workers of Memphis, King delayed his plans for the retreat and would never meet Merton. What pathways would have been illumined by the meeting of these men? Would meeting King have impacted Merton’s travel to Asia or the conversations he had there?

My journey with Merton took me by surprise. It began with his prayer:

My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see 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 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 that I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I 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 my perils alone.

Had I not been curious after failed attempts to read his acclaimed The Seven Storey Mountain, the journey would have ended with the prayer. Thankfully, as a Catholic woman in a Black body, I know the value of asking questions moving beyond the dominant narrative. While most are familiar with Merton as a monk and a writer, there is much more to know about how his faith transcended the dualism projected by society. For those curious about my research on Merton, I am sharing the YouTube video of my 2023 Tuesdays with Merton talk for the International Thomas Merton Society.

Leslye ColvinDecember 10, 2025Comment