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A YEAR WITH T H O M A S M E RT O N Daily Meditations from His Journals Thomas Merton Selected and edited by Jonathan Montaldo Contents LEARNING LOVE’S LANGUAGE: THE SPEECH A DAY MAKES JANUARY 1 A Breath of Zen 1 JANUARY 2 The Silence in Yourself 2 JANUARY 3 New Year’s Darkness 3 JANUARY 4 The Speech of God Is Silence 4 JANUARY 5 Her Presence Demands My Love 5 JANUARY 6 Winter Hermitage Under Black Pines 6 JANUARY 7 The Sin of Wanting to Be Heard 7 JANUARY 8 Solitude and Gentleness 8 JANUARY 9 Deepening the Present 9 JANUARY 10 God Is the Room I Rest In 10 JANUARY 11 With a Pure and Empty Heart 11 JANUARY 12 The Peace of Being Nothing Special 12 JANUARY 13 Unlearning All Tension in Solitude 13 JANUARY 14 Thrown into Contradiction 14 JANUARY 15 One Dog’s Good Afternoon 15 JANUARY 16 Content to Be Happy 16 JANUARY 17 Weary of Words 17 JANUARY 18 An Ecology of Silence 18 JANUARY 19 Reality and the Ordinary 19 JANUARY 20 Rediscovering Jesus 20 JANUARY 21 My Deep Youthful Shyness 21 JANUARY 22 Out to Sea Without Restraints 22 JANUARY 23 Unveiling the Heart 23 JANUARY 24 Moments of Angelic Lucidity 24 JANUARY 25 I Begin to Awaken 25 JANUARY 26 Faithful to the Truth 26 JANUARY 27 The Necessity of Adoration 27 JANUARY 28 Seeing the Center from Somewhere Else 28 JANUARY 29 Going Nowhere, Having Nothing to Do 29 JANUARY 30 On the Eve of a Birthday 30 JANUARY 31 The Gift of My Life 31 FEBRUARY 1 The Climate of My Prayer 33 FEBRUARY 2 Bearing Witness to the Resurrection 34 FEBRUARY 3 The Fellowship of Stars and Crows 35 FEBRUARY 4 A Priest with the World as My Parish 36 FEBRUARY 5 We Are Not Shadows of God 37 FEBRUARY 6 Every Next Instant Reveals God’s Will 38 FEBRUARY 7 My Place in the Scheme of Things 39 FEBRUARY 8 Sealed Together in Christ 40 FEBRUARY 9 Out of Touch and Left Behind 41 FEBRUARY 10 Blessings of Emptiness and Peace 42 FEBRUARY 11 Sunlight on a Vase of Carnations 43 FEBRUARY 12 The Power of Jesus’ Passion in Us 44 FEBRUARY 13 Get Warm and Love God Any Way You Can 45 FEBRUARY 14 An Untidy Holy Life 46 FEBRUARY 15 On Not Going Crazy for Christ 47 FEBRUARY 16 Hidden Movements of Christ’s Grace 48 FEBRUARY 17 Absent from the Wedding Feast 49 FEBRUARY 18 In the Darkness of My Empty Mind 50 FEBRUARY 19 Healing Our Flesh 51 FEBRUARY 20 Solitude Is a Stern Mother 52 FEBRUARY 21 Where Your Treasure Is 53 FEBRUARY 22 The Wonder of God’s Mercy 54 FEBRUARY 23 Belonging Entirely to God 55 FEBRUARY 24 He Made the Desert Holy 56 FEBRUARY 25 Christ Has Known Our Exile 57 FEBRUARY 26 Our Blindness 58 FEBRUARY 27 Clinging to God 59 FEBRUARY 28 A Life of Clashes and Discoveries 60 FEBRUARY 29 A Bleak Extra Day 61 MARCH 1 In Me God Takes His Joy 63 MARCH 2 The Comfort of Frogs 64 MARCH 3 With Contrite Hearts to God 65 MARCH