O Earth, When Will We Hear You Sing... Thomas Merton and Journal Writing as Prayer (Regina Sara Ryan)

Lectio Divina (“divine reading” in Latin) is a centuries-old tradition of being inspired by reflecting on the text of a scripture. It may also be considered in terms of “reading” creation and what Thomas Merton called the “calligraphy of nature.” Merton (1915-1968) was a Catholic monastic and mystic whose writing impacted vast numbers of Christians by introducing them to a perspective on Eastern traditions they had never been exposed to before. He used his journaling as a portal into prayer, an entryway to clarity of thinking and love for God. He acknowledged times of doubt, fear, and anger and wrote with self-honesty and courage through it all. Merton walked a razor’s edge in monastic life as his writings were subject to censorship in the Church. He met Tibetan Buddhist masters, considered Zen, Hindu, and Sufi teachings, and reported his own nondual experience. He wrote about the Vietnam war and had communications with Martin Luther King, Joan Baez, and many other public figures and writers. Merton stayed the course within the Catholic Church, sensing that God had placed him where he was. He was much loved by those resonant with the roots of mystical Christianity and maligned by those who were rigid and felt he had gone outside of the bounds of his faith. His overriding context was that all of life is a play of God. He felt that our desire to go where God wants us to go is praise of God and that “The gate of heaven is everywhere.” Journaling can be a way of communicating with the deep self, our highest self. Prompts were given to those who attended the talk, and some shared their journaling about “what I know and don’t know about prayer.” Regina Sara Ryan was the editor of Hohm Press for 35 years. She is a workshop leader, retreat guide, and author of The Woman Awake, Igniting the Inner Life, Praying Dangerously, Only God, and other books.