Contemplative Prayer

Contemplative Prayer

by Thomas Merton 

Image Books, Garden City, New York   © 1971    116 pp.


Although this little book is billed in the introduction as a “…general essay on the very nature of prayer” I found it to be an eye-opening glimpse into monastic life, as described by a series of early monastic writers and interpreted by Merton. That life – with almost none of the distractions common to the rest of us – is centered around prayer, specifically ". . . prayer of the heart as a way of keeping oneself in the presence of God and of reality, rooted in one’s own inner truth.”

Merton calls this a prayer of solitude that brings one face-to-face with his own self-centered vanity and with “…the sham and indignity of the false self that seeks to live for itself alone.” He says that self-denial and sacrifice, experiences of inner darkness and aridity, and practices of mortification are essential to the monastic life of prayer. But he also notes that many serious and good monks, wanting to improve their inner dispositions, end up contemplating themselves to avoid the risk and dread associated with complete submission to God’s will.

The book is not a light read, but a serious look at how a life devoted to prayer of the heart would cause one to wrestle constantly with his/her own inner demons.

-- reviewed by Sharry Lachman


To visit the blog and see more reviews and quotes from books in the collection of Center for Sacred Sciences' Library click here https://centerforsacredscienceslibrary.blogspot.com