Thomas Merton Archives

Communicators must recognize value, importance of words, author says
- Jun 26, 2017
The danger is “when we protect ourselves and only watch what we like,” Michael Higgins, a Canadian author and professor, said at a Catholic media conference, which leads people to “form caricatures of other voices” equating them to strangers, foreigners and eventually enemies.

By Carol Zimmermann
Is the pro-Life movement still welcome in the anti-war movement?
- Jun 8, 2017
When anti-war organizations are excluding pro-life groups from their activities, it highlights the incoherence of the culture wars. What can we say about these anti-war leaders having abortion purity tests for their movements? It seems they have little or no sense of how intertwined the pro-life and anti-war movements have been and continue to be.

By Charles C. Camosy
Saints reveal the tremendous diversity of the Church
- Oct 7, 2016
The stories of the lives of saints on earth are gifts for which we can be grateful, as we are grateful for works of art. Someone once wrote that the saints are like actors in a play, and the script of that play is the gospel.

By Father James Martin S.J.

On a spiritual journey, it’s good to have a soul friend

Oct 15, 2014

When Thomas Merton was master of scholastics at the Monastery at Gethsemani in 1962, he remarked that “everyone should get spiritual direction.” This was a wildly radical notion for its time. Back then, the only people who received spiritual direction — in the West, at least — were ordained clergy.

Doubt – and faith

Sep 24, 2014

Once I believed that when you found faith, it rarely wavered. Then I learned that even saints had massive doubts about God. How reassuring. If even the holiest of the holy had second thoughts, why not me? Maybe we Catholics should talk more about doubt. It actually is an intrinsic