“But you shall taste the true solitude of My anguish and My poverty and I shall lead you into the high places of My joy and you shall die in Me and find all things in My mercy which has created you for this end, and brought you from Prades to Bermuda to St. Antonin to Oakham to London to Cambridge to Rome to New York to Columbia to Corpus Christi and St Bonaventure to the Cistercian abbey of the poor men who labor in Gethsemani: that you may become the brother of God and learn to know the Christ of the burnt men. Sit finis libri, non finis qaerendi.”
3 thoughts on “Thomas Merton: closing passage of Seven Story Mountain”
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TimothyOne 
True Thomas Merton.
When I recently read this quote, there was a sense of an “aha moment” … because it gave clarity to so many of the things and events I have questioned in my own life. There is little point in enumerating the many things, even from before birth, that I never would have chosen if I had been given a say in the matter, however this quote from The Seven Story Mountain resonates, and brings clarity to much that has been unsettled for me. Surely God’s plans and heart of affection toward us is so much greater than our limited vision and understanding could ever be.
Thank you so much for stopping by.
Yes….Merton looks back and sees what might be just a string of places, but sees them as stations on the road to Gethsemane. He challenges me to see not accidents but stations.