Stories of Thomas Merton with James Finley

James Finley speaks here on Turning to Merton as Our Guide in Contemplative Living
Shalem Institute's yearly Gerald May Seminar hosts James Finley as a contemplative voice this year. Finley spent six years at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Trappist, Kentucky, where Thomas Merton was his spiritual guide. Here, he speaks of his experience in his talk “Turning to Thomas Merton as Our Spiritual Guide in Contemplative Living” - more resources on contemplative living, visit us at shalem.org!

[@monicaarcher7107]

The passages he reads are beautiful.

[@lesliehershberger983]

This: “Thomas Merton had insomnia, and he once wrote, I’m lying here in this bed and the bed becomes an altar, and in a distance city somewhere, someone is able to pray and perhaps people whose lives we have touched most deeply will be people we will not meet until we are dead. The power of love is not limited by space or time. It is not limited by anything.” Thank you, Jim.

[@cherylmburton5577]

It wasn't exactly insomnia, rather a zeal for God❤😊❤

[@SmndrMahmudov-hp4fg]

​@cherylmburton5577

[@SmndrMahmudov-hp4fg]

​@cherylmburton5577 ööö

[@SmndrMahmudov-hp4fg]

​@cherylmburton5577 ööö

[@SmndrMahmudov-hp4fg]

​Ölkənin əsas ö😊

[@paulamugan5165]

Yeah I'm so blessed to have someone teaching about my Thomas RGD

[@bogohotdogz]

YOUR Thomas?

[@annette4660]

That may be the best two hours I've ever spent. What an incredible gift.

[@lindawer]

James is such a great communicator of the spiritual.

[@ginacalabrese747]

32:38... every so often this awakening happens ... very intense - changed my life - one of the most beautiful moments I will have in my heart for eternityb

[@ginacalabrese747]

My ego wants that moment again and again with the person but that would be living in the glory days of the past ~ I need to stay present NOW 💜🙏and appreciate all the good I have NOW and there is so much good - God is amazing

[@ramonitamartinez5272]

Awesome. I want to listed to it again….

[@hamadah4]

I have no words for it, this lecture gives so much inspiration, guidance, depth, light....thanks enormously!

[@evelyncampbell8692]

hamadah4 t

[@patriciawalters9557]

hamadah4 qq

[@LaurenDelsackAstrologer]

James Finley is one incredible, special soul. Thank you for sharing this ;-)

[@podgorneyjohn]

Finley is inspiring.

[@waynemcmillan5970]

James you are an inspiration to us all.

[@wilfredobenitez7275]

What a beautiful glimpse into what we know that we know. 🙏🏽

[@shanelanders9735]

Thank you for posting this. 🙏

[@JN25376]

"On the Love of God" (Gerald May) begins a bit after 4:30.

[@anhumblemessengerofthelawo3858]

_Saint Finley, anyone?_

[@elizabethkelley6203]

YES! St. Finley. He has gone through his passion, death and resurrection. God bless God in him!

[@juliesheard2122]

For sure

[@JN25376]

Excellent message. Thank you. So helpful!

[@safarwisby8073]

What a Being! Thank you

[@ginacalabrese747]

“Love makes one”

[@anhumblemessengerofthelawo3858]

Love _is_ one; _forgiveness_ takes away the block to it's awareness.

[@catherinetaylor7546]

And Australia 🇦🇺

[@cherylmburton5577]

Around 1hr 16mins Mr Finley tells of a dream he had of Thomas Merton folk dancing. It is funny 😅 but he includes the Scriptural passage of Jesus telling how the children in the street were saying: we danced for you but you did not join in. - Eventually Finley says everyone got up and danced with Merton except himself because he (Finley) was too busy protecting his notes on Merton's folk dancing and he was annoyed at thinking he would lose his place in the notes because of Merton's distraction, but he was not really noticing that there was no audience to listen to him anymore because they had all gotten the message to become a child again just as Jesus says we should in Scripture and they had all joined Merton in folk dancing or as Thomas Merton called dancing with the Lord at the conclusion of his book "New Seeds of Contemplation": The Cosmic Dance.

[@bogohotdogz]

He's so smitten by his own voice and cleverness it's stifling. What he IS screams so loudly in my ears that I cannot hear what he saying. My limitation, I suppose

[@auradiana]

perhaps maybe he is speaking to your shadows and they are cringing--that happens when truth speaks and am not ready. The man is humble due to a traumatic past which broke him, he is not speaking from high academic platform but life formation and experience, his truths resonate deeply.

[@annmurphy3686]

$1- !!!

[@cherylmburton5577]

​@@auradianaI can understand also why he or she hears it that way!

[@denisjackson8310]

A great pity the quality of the picture is now so,poor !

[@eleanorbrand4555]

Ç ž

[@lovegodsomuch8094]

What about sin? Life after death? Jesus being the only way to get to Father God? What about the practicality of getting nourishment from scriptures in the Bible? All I hear is spiritual blah blah blah- mysticism.

[@chrisv.noire.6388]

Jesus was a mystic. And yes, its all spiritual. Just the fact that you seeing this as 'blah, blah, blah' is evidence you don't quite get it. None of this is exclusion of all the things you've mentioned. This is a teaching to those who are already in the faith. Now that you are in Jesus, forgiven, you still have a journey to walk. You don't stop at the door and act like you arrived. Hebrews 6: 1 1Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works,a and of faith in God, 2instruction about baptisms,b the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3And this we will do, if God permits. This does not mean any of those things are not important. It means there is more, after you've stepped into the door that is Christ and that the Way that is Christ is a way you must walk on for the rest of your life and there is more to that walk to the Father than what you've mentioned. What about sin? it is simply and quickly washed away by His blood, what about life after death...you don't need to learn how to live the after life. Its how to live the present one that is problematic when you have people that profess Christ do the things that the present church has been doing. You problem is you walking into a person talking about something specific and asking why he is not talking about something else. Its like walking into a presentation of heart disease and complaining about why they did not talk about the liver.

[@wiredforstereo]

Yes, you do.

[@johnmcmanus8895]

When all "I" hear is (insert whatever mumbo-jumbo is in my head at any given moment of any given day) - I know "I" have a problem.

[@jesserogerburson7498]

Thanks for providing us a perfect example of “casting pearls before swine,” as deep calls unto deep. Very few have the eyes to see, nor the ears to hear anything beyond blah-blah-blah

[@annette4660]

@@chrisv.noire.6388 Thank you for this. I needed it today.