First Line Friday #42: New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton

Thanks to Carrie at
Reading is My Superpower
for the Link-up

 

 

Title:  New Seeds of Contemplation
Author:  Thomas Merton
Genre:  Christian Spirituality

    〰First Line〰

─────────────────────────────────────────────────

Contemplation is the highest expression of man's intellectual and spiritual life.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────

Synopsis:  (From Goodreads) 

One of the best-loved books by one of the great spiritual authors of our time, with a new introduction by best-selling author Sue Monk Kidd. New Seeds of Contemplation is one of Thomas Merton's most widely read and best-loved books. Christians and non-Christians alike have joined in praising it as a notable successor in the meditative tradition of St. John of the Cross, The Cloud of Unknowing, and the medieval mystics, while others have compared Merton's reflections with those of Thoreau. New Seeds of Contemplation seeks to awaken the dormant inner depths of the spirit so long neglected by Western man, to nurture a deeply contemplative and mystical dimension in our lives. For Merton, "Every moment and every event of every man's life on earth plants something in his soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of winged seeds, so each moment brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of men. Most of these unnumbered seeds perish and are lost, because men are not prepared to receive them: for such seeds as these cannot spring up anywhere except in the soil of freedom, spontaneity and love."

  〰First Thoughts〰

This book is kind of a cross between a recommended read and an impulse purchase.  Last summer I made my first visit to the Tattered Cover in Littleton with some friends.  If you know me, you know that if I'm going to take the time and budget to go somewhere new, I don't like to come away empty handed.  Yes, some experiences are conducive to photos, but who wants to go to a bookstore and only come away with pictures of books?  I had a running list of potential purchases, but they either didn't carry the book or didn't have all the volumes of a particular series (I was hunting for C. S. Lewis' Space Trilogy).  When I ran across Merton's book on contemplation, I remembered that a friend from church had recommended it to me.

So, yes, I've had this tome in my possession for more than six months...and I keep staring at it with a touch of buyer's remorse.

In my studies of theology, I heard Merton's name batted around, but the man still remains a mystery to me.  I understand that he wrote prolifically in the genre of contemplative spirituality and that he lived a "regular" life before becoming a Trappist monk and cloistering away in a Kentucky monastery.  When I tried to learn more about him by reading his autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain, I came away with no more understanding that before I started.  It was (to me) quite a confusing mash of vignettes about his life that didn't follow a logical enough timeline on which to grasp.  If I'm coming away from his biography with this much confusion, I'm not sure I'll understand this work any better.  

Am I smart enough to even read this? 

So, what's the first line of the book you're currently reading?