The Seven Storey Mountain

I have just finished reading Thomas Merton's "The Seven Storey Mountain", the fascinating autobiographical account of his quest for faith. Mderton has a very interesting 'early life' story, which this book recounts, ending with his admission to the Trappist Monastery at Gethsemani in Kentucky. He finished the book (published in 1948) in 1946 at the age of 31, five years after entering the monastery. Unsurprisingly, it describes many moments of exploration and of faith. Relatively near to the end of the book, Merton writes of his finding faith anc clarity on his call to the religious life: "It may seem irrational, but at that moment, it was as if scales fell off my own eyes, and looking back on all my worries and questions, I could see clearly how empty and futile they had been. Yes, it was obvious that I was called to the monastic life: and all my doubts about it had been mostly shadows. Where had they gained such a deceptive appearance of substance and reality? Accident and circumstances had all combined to exaggerate and distort things in my mind. But now everything was straight again. And already I was full of peace and assurance - the consciousness that everything was right, and that a straight road had opened out, clear and smooth, ahead of me." He also says: "I was free. I had recovered my liberty. I belonged to God, not to myself: and to belong to Him is to be free, free of all the anxieties and worries and sorrows that belong to this earth, and the love of the things that are in it. What was the difference between one place and another, one habit and another, if your life belonged to God, and if you placed yourself completely in His hands? The only thing that mattered was the fact of the sacrifice, the essential dedication of one's self, one's will, The rest was only accidental." A fascinating read with much of interest and many insights.