title: The Cistercian Fathers and Their Monastic Theology: Initiation into the Monastic Tradition 8 (Monastic Wisdom Series)
author: Thomas Merton OCSO
description: <DIV><DIV>&quot;I bowed my head surveying Merton&#39;s erudition, captured here in his careful reading of Saint Bernard, aligned with skills that deployed his scholarship as a spur to his students&#39; contemplation. The energy he expended on preparing classes, while maintaining daily life as monk and writer, is extraordinary. No less impressive is the wildly capacious skill-set exhibited by Patrick O&#39;Connell as he introduces and annotates Merton&#39;s `notes.&#39; His expert summoning of the entire Merton corpus to bear on whatever Merton text he annotates astounds me. O&#39;Connell wins first honors as the most agile transmitter of Merton&#39;s legacy. My admiring his accomplishment here and elsewhere defies adequate expression.&quot;</DIV><DIV>Jonathan Montaldo Co-editor of <I>We Are Already One: Thomas Merton&#39;s Message of Hope</I></DIV></DIV><br /><br /><DIV><DIV>&quot;Anticipating by a number of years the Second Vatican Council&#39;s call for religious orders to return to the wisdom of their founders, Merton&#39;s in-depth teaching notes, skillfully annotated by Patrick F. O&#39;Connell, show us Merton&#39;s intimate knowledge of the works of St. Bernard, St. Aelred, and others, along with his giftedness as a teacher and an interpreter of this rich tradition.&quot;</DIV><DIV>Paul M. Pearson, Director, Thomas Merton Center</DIV></DIV><br /><br /><DIV>&quot;This book allows the reader to follow Merton as he unpacks the wisdom of the Cistercian heritage. And even though it does require some effort the reward is more than worth the work.&quot;</DIV><DIV><I>Cistercian Studies Quarterly</I></DIV>
zlib_text: Entrance to Monastery of Our Laoy of Gethsemani, 
  Trappist, Kentucky 
  
  MSS 
  THE SILENT LIFE 
  
  BOOKS BY THOMAS MERTON 
  THE SEVEN STOREY MOUNTAIN 
  THE SIGN OF JONAS 
  THE ASCENT TO TRUTH 
  THE WATERS OF SILOE 
  SEEDS OF CONTEMPLATION 
  BREAD IN THE WILDERNESS 
  EXILE ENDS IN GLORY 
  WHAT ARE THESE WOUNDS? 
  THE LAST OF THE FATHERS 
  NO MAN IS AN ISLAND 
  THE LIVING BREAD 
  Verse 
  THE TEARS OF THE BLIND LIONS 
  A MAN IN THE DIVIDED SEA 
  FIGURES FOR AN APOCALYPSE 
  THIRTY POEMS 
  
  THE 
  SILENT 
  LIFE 
  BY THOMAS MERTON 
  Farrar, Straus & Cudahy • Nenj: York 
  
  © 1957 by The Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani 
  Library of Congress catalog card number 56-6164 
  First Printing, 1957 
  Ex Forte Ordinis 
  Nihil Obstat: Fr. M. Augustine Westland, O.C.S.O. 
  Fr. M. Patil Bourne, O.C.S.O. 
  Imprimi Potest: Fr. M. Gabriel Sortais, O.C.S.O., 
  Abbot General 
  Nihil Obstat: John A. Goodwine, Censor Librorum 
  Imprimatur:FsMicis Cahdinal Spellman, 
  Archbishop of New York 
  New York, September 7, 1956 
  The Nihil Obstat and Imprimatu