Thomas Merton

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) is arguably the most influential American Catholic author of the twentieth century. His autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, has sold over one million copies and has been translated into over fifteen languages. He wrote over sixty other books and hundreds of poems and articles.

What a thing it is to sit absolutely alone,

in the forest, at night, cherished by this 

wonderful, unintelligible, perfectly innocent speech,

the most comforting speech in the world,

the talk that rain makes by itself all over the ridges,

and the talk of the water courses 

everywhere in the hollows!

Nobody started it, nobody is going to stop it.

It will talk as long as it wants, this rain.

As long as it talks I am going to listen.

— Thomas Merton