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The Wisdom of the Desert (New Directions)

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As another reviewer notes, Merton's selections are not as comprehensive as Helen Waddell's, and his introduction does not provide nearly as detailed an account of the historical and literary context of the desert fathers' sayings. This is not Merton's purpose. He is trying to give us a sense of the spiritual essence of the fathers, and he does it brilliantly. Although he is not as elegant a writer as Waddell, nor as learned, he has a much deeper intuitive understanding of the fathers' search for God and their love for each other. His selections emphasize the importance of this love and downplay the fanatical asceticism that many people associate with the fathers. Throughout his introduction, he emphasizes that love is far more important in the Christian life than either mysticism or asceticism. Thus, although a sympathetic reader may not learn terribly much about the history of the desert fathers from Merton, she will begin to understand "the wisdom of the desert".

Thomas Merton was perhaps the best known monastic of the last century. That he was a Trappist perhaps puts him in the best contemporary context from which to understand the Desert Fathers - the kind of hermit/distance existence that they had does not really exist in the world today (true, there are a few who carry on the tradition in the deserts of Egypt and a few other places, but often even they advise against this becoming a trend in Christian practice again). The Trappists are among those for whom silence and solitude are intentional practices, much like the Desert Fathers.

Merton, a talented writer on matters spiritual, states in the Author's note that his intention was not to produce a new 'edition' by academic standards, or to do any piece of new research. Rather, Merton set out to produce an accessible collection of wisdom sayings that had been contained in the collection 'Verba Seniorum', a Latin text of stories and proverbs handed down from the Desert Fathers and those who knew and wrote about them.

In the fourth century, while Christianity was still struggling as a minority (sometimes a violently oppressed minority) in the Empire, there were those who saw that the greater threat to the new faith was not the imperial officials and their forces, but rather the attractions and lure of the cities. It was very easy to put forth the claim that the world was not a Christian one, and that one would have to renounce the world to live an authentically Christian life - the Desert Fathers tended to do this renunciation in rather dramatic fashion (and, to varying extent, this is what monastics continue to do to this day). This renunciation was true even with official tolerance and imperial imprimatur, for Christianity was still the decided minority.

Merton states that it is a mistake to think that the Desert Fathers were isolationist individuals, however - 'the very fact that they uttered these "words" of advice to one another is proof that they were eminently social.' They sought an equality amongst themselves under God, and were welcoming toward those who sought them for instruction and wisdom.

In this collection, the 'Verba Seniorum' are perhaps the most true to the actual words of the Desert Fathers that we can get. Most writing about them came from people who added literary flourishes and often hagiographic legendary material into the mix; these are much more simple. They are 'the plain, unpretentious reports that went from mouth to mouth in the Coptic tradition before being committed to writing in Syriac, Greek and Latin.'

Over and over again, the Desert Fathers stress love above all. Their love reaches out for tolerance toward others, even as they sometimes seem to be intolerant toward themselves. Perhaps their generosity toward others came from a recognition of the faults of their own and the hope that God will deal more generously with them as they strive to deal generously with others.

'One of the brethren had sinned, and the priest told him to leave the community. So then Abbot Bessarion got up and walked out with him, saying: I too am a sinner!'

This is a wonderful, heartfelt, wise collection. It is not organised according to any overarching theme or systematic theological paradigm, but rather like a collecton of 'quotable quotes', often seemingly random. I often take the book and open it at random, to see what insights I can gain from it that day.

Thomas Merton was a Trappist Monk and wrote this book that contains his favorite quotes from 'Verba Seniorum'. He chooses these for himself and his fellow monks in order to make some of the sayings of the Desert Fathers more accessible. He begins this book with a very well written introduction.

Merton wrote this book not as a history of the early Desert Fathers. What he provides are a selection of extracts from their writings that had proved useful for him in his contemplative life. The book is definitely worth reading. A book you will keep by your night stand.

If you are looking for a book that gives you a history of the Desert Fathers and a wide range of their writings, then this is the wrong book for you.

...in search of spiritual peace.

The metaphor of going to the desert in order to pray more profoundly is something that I can relate to. With these monks, it wasn't just a metaphor.

The late Thomas Merton, at the least, was a great writer. He wrote introductions to other books, on Gandhi and books on Zen and Christianity. And really, his introductions were more insightful than the contents that he introduced.

If the example of these monks can inspire us to practice praying in a deeper way in our daily lives, even if we never go near a desert, then this book will have served its purpose well.

This small book (81 pages, including a 24 page introduction) is a collection of short sayings and stories out of the early Christian desert tradition predating monasticism. Taken from a classical collection called Verba Seniorium, in Migne's Latin Patrology, Merton selects a somewhat arbitrary group of personal "greatest hits", and adds an essay-introduction on the importance of the Desert Fathers as representing "a discovery of man, at the term of an inner and spiritual journey that is far more crucial and infinitely more important than a journey to the moon" (introduction, page 11).

Thus launched, the sayings spill out in no particular order or chapters, without name or context to read against. As an introduction to the desert tradition, this book may provide a small opening to test interest. Other collections, however, (The Desert Fathers, translated/introduced by H. Waddell; The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, translated/introduced by Benedicta Ward) are better grounded historically, and give a far wider rnage of material than does this personal gathering of favorites. This book sheds little light on either Father Merton or desert fathers.

I found myself taking this small book in miniscule bites, a saying here, a saying there, over the course of a week and a half after purchasing it. While I certainly came to its pages seeking a deeper experience of the experience of Christ that the Desert Fathers and Mothers had in their cells in the sands, I never came expecting to be lectured at length on the historical background of monasticism, or to be exposed to a lengthy exploration of the sayings in their entirety. With this in mind, the book is what I believe Merton set out to make it: a collection of his favorite sayings of those ancient Brothers and Sisters in Christ who dwelt alone and in small communities in the deserts of Egypt and Palestine, slowly coming to know themselves truly and intimately as a means of knowing and experiencing the grace, love, and mercy of God. It is truly and simply a personal collection of favorites, warm in its interpretation and preceded by a profound introduction by Merton himself (which served to take many of my presumptions about the Fathers, and indeed, monasticism in general, and flip them on their heads).
Again, this is a small book, but it is rich, and designed to be celebrated, savored, and shared.

This is a very short (less than 100 pages) collection of sayings of the Desert Fathers, with a brief historical introduction from Merton. I had heard many references to the Fathers over the years, but didn't really know too much about their tradition, spiritual practices, or beliefs. Merton's book serves as an excellent introduction. Much of what the Fathers teach about humility, charity, hospitality, and reverence are just as important (and in many ways counter cultural) today as they no doubt were then. The sayings in Merton's collection are of an exceedingly practical nature. There is no philosophizing or deep theological reflection. Simplicity and practicality were what struck me most about the Fathers, and why I found this book such wonderfully apt and enjoyable reading for Lenten reflection.

You don't need Zen koans or ancient Vedas to experience profound wisdom. The Christian tradition is alive with the thoughtful and profound insights of its own holy men and women. Fr. Thomas Merton assembled in this handy little book some of his favorite sayings of the desert fathers of 1400 to 1800 years ago. The sayings, uttered by monks and hermits living in the Egyptian wilderness and religious communities, reflect the pure faith, vision and mystical experiences of these holy men. Whether on virtue and vice, solitude, prayer, scripture, temptation or dozens of other topics, the reader will find humor, profundity and sacred reflections on every page. A must read.

Thomas Merton, that great Trappist monk, is an American treasure. Merton is a creative and wonderful writer, who wrote many important books on monasticism and spirituality. "The Wisdom of the Desert" (1960) is one of Merton's shortest books, an anthology really, of sayings from the Desert fathers and mothers.

"Wisdom of the Desert" begins with a profound and fascinating essay which sets the writings of the Desert Fathers in context. There Father Merton tells us that the Desert writers have always been one of his favorite group of writers, and that what follows is a collection of his favorite "sayings". I went through the book this morning (it's only 81 pages long) and selected some of my favorite "sayings". These Zen like quotes tell us something about the spiritual experience of the Fathers and their desire to live authentic spiritual lives. For me, this feature is the magnet of the book, which keeps me coming back for more.

Here are a few:

VII
A brother asked one of the elders, How does fear of the Lord get into a man? And the elder said; If a man have humility and poverty, and judge not another, that is how fear of the Lord gets into him.

XIII
A certain brother went to Abbot Moses in Scete, and asked him for a good word. And the elder said to him; Go, sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything.

XXV
Abbot Pastor said: The virtue of a monk is made manifest by temptations.

XXVIII
An Elder said: Just as a tree cannot bear frut if it is often transplanted, so neither can a monk bear fruit if he frequently changes his abode.

XCIV
Once some robbers came into the monastery and said to one of the elders; We have come to take away everything that is in your cell. And he said: My sons, take all you want. So they took everything they could find in the cell and started off. But they left behind a little bad that was hidden in the cell. The elder picked it up and followed after them, crying out: My sons, take this, you forgot it in the cell! Amazed at the patience of the elder, they brought everything back into his cell and did penance, saying: This one really is a man of God!

These "sayings" invite us to an inner-directed Christianity one you may not be familiar with, but one which is sorely needed. "Go sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything"! In other words, you already possess in you, all that you need. One just has to ruminate! And it is my experience, this is what drives folks to be part of monastic communities today. To be more "real".

I love these "sayings" and reading them often sparks off other thoughts. Check saying XXVIII, on the principle of stablity. St. Benedict later made this the backbone of his religious order, and helped to transform Europe. And how about saying XCIV? Ever seen that one before? Reminds me of that great scene in Hugo's "Les Miserables" when Bishop Myriel gives his silver candlesticks to Jean Valigean. Who knows, maybe Hugo got his idea for that scene from here.

This is a great book, a fine place to start if you've never read anything by the sage from Gethsemani Abbey.

This has an east west friendliness in that Thomas Merton picks the stories that he liked in those early centuries of the beginning of Christian Monasticism. I own most of the collections of the desert fathers but this is my favorite.

Top pick is the one I retell so often: monk assigned by his elder to stand at the gate at the entrance of town for some time, allowance in hand, and pay people to insult him...so that he will learn humility. Evidently he gets the day off at some point and is sent to the market to buy food. He comes back to his elders at the monastery to report with amazement that he had no idea that one could get insulted downtown for free.

So many stories to grow by. This volume is small and affordable, makes for a good bible tract type gift handouts to friends or to take on trips for airplane reading.
And, because it is pre 1054 schism, shows the kind of inner spirituality that can be embraced by the east and the west alike.