The Waters of Siloe Author:Thomas Merton This book is a compaion volume to the author's famous autobiography, "The Seven Storey Mountain". It gives a complete and comprehensive picture of the monk's daily existence, from the time he rises at two o'clock in the morning to sing Matins until he goes to bed after Compline at seven in the evening. In addition, it provides an informal accoun... more »t of the meaning and purpose of Trappist life, told in terms of those personalities who forged and tempered the spirit of the Order through the ages.
The rule which guides the Trappist or Cistercian Order today derives basically rom St. Benedict, who believed in the primacy of contemplation even above the physical austerity of monastic living. Poverty, obedience, silence, sacrifice, and prayer are merely means to assist the monk in attaining the goal of utter selflessness, the keystone of the Comtemplative Life. Thomas Merton shows how this spiritual ideal pervades the monk's whole existance.
Thomas Merton's familiar qualities of candor, compassion, and humor charactize thes pages. He describes the rule of La Grande Trappe in the 17th century under de Rance, the founding of the abbey at Gethsemani, Kentucky, in 1849, and the growth of the Order to eight American foundations. He reveals the kinds of men who become Trappist monks, like the Texas cowboy who was among the first to join the Order in this country and the G.I's among the newest postulants. His glossary of monastic terms and his examples of Trappist sign language help to complete a fascination account of way of life which is ever-recurrin and timeless.« less