Journey with Thomas Merton for 7 days, meditating on the best of his contemplative writings and savor-ing striking black and white photos taken my Merton himself. Let this book bring you to a greater aware-ness of yourself and Christ's presence in your world.

In the third retreat in the series, the focus is Thomas Merton, a Trappist Monk and writer, whose astonishing appeal to people derives from his ability to fuse his theology with his life and from his capacity to address the reader as though he were writing for no one else. Padovano shares selected aspects of Merton's life story, inviting readers to get in touch with their own spiritual journeys.

The celebrated spiritual writer Thomas Merton remains one of the most influential voices of our day. His many books are considered modern spiritual classics as he is credited with introducing the riches of the monastic tradition to many. Here, Esther de Waal devises a seven-day personal or group retreat program using excerpts from Thomas Merton’s writings and a selection of the photography for which he was also renowned. She creates a retreat that can be made at home, at a retreat center, on vacation, or over a week or longer. The focus of each of the seven days is: The Call, Response, The Solitary Within, Encounter with Christ, The Demands of Love, Ordinary Things, and Integration.

In 1996, Jesuit activist John Dear spent several weeks on silent retreat in Thomas Merton's hermitage on the grounds of the Abbey of Gethsemani near Louisville, Kentucky. His journal from those days of silence and solitude invites us into Merton's own spirit of peace. The Sound of Listening takes us into both the journey of John Dear and Thomas Merton, and our own journey to peace and new life. As we enter these days of peace, we pray with John Dear the peace prayer of St. Francis and join our voice to his Updated Version of the Apostles' Creed. Together, we emerge ready for the struggle for justice, renewed for the journey of nonviolence, and enlightened to speak the good news of peace to a wartorn world.

In the fall of 1964, Trappist monk Thomas Merton prepared to host an unprecedented gathering of peace activists. "About all we have is a great need for roots," he observed, "but to know this is already something." His remark anticipated their agenda--a search for spiritual roots to nurture sound motives for "protest." This event's originality lay in the varied religious commitments present. Convened in an era of well-kept faith boundaries, members of Catholic (lay and clergy), mainline Protestant, historic peace church, and Unitarian traditions participated. Ages also varied, ranging from twenty-three to seventy-nine. Several among the fourteen who gathered are well known today among faith-based peace advocates: the Berrigan brothers, Jim Forest, Tom Cornell, John Howard Yoder, A. J. Muste, and Merton himself. During their three days together, insights and wisdom from these traditions would intersect and nourish each other. By the time they parted, their effort had set down solid roots and modeled interreligious collaboration for peace work that would blossom in coming decades. Here for the first time, the details of those vital discussions have been reconstructed and made accessible to again inspire and challenge followers of Christ to confront the powers and injustices of today.