AFAC: Seeds of Contemplation
One of the many delights of responding to the bishop's letter has been the discovery that both Merton's original Seeds of Contemplation and its revision New Seeds of Contemplation are available on the internet as pdfs. That means that now on any electronic device they are instantly available from this post. Moreover, on a laptop computer with a monitor attached on can place them on separate screens for comparison.
The pdf pages numbers are different from the original book page numbers in case one has the original books. However, they are both out of print. In the following excerpts I have made Merton's language more inclusive and indicated where he changed SEEDS in NEW SEEDS,
In the additional material added below in NEW SEEDs Merton adopts the "we" style that I use in rereading SEEDS. The "man" language in the original is nota reflection of male language as in the Latin word (vir) rather it is a reflection of the Latin (homo) and Greek (anthropos) i.e. mankind, humanity.
Anthropos in scripture often emphasizes that human ways are different from the ways of God. Merton's conversion to being a monk, i.e. leaving the world, was expressed by talking about mankind. By the time he got to NEW SEEDS he was very aware of how much of the world existed in the monastery and continued to exist in himself. He acknowledged in the introduction to NEW SEEDS how being a novice master had helped him to understand others. The more conversational style of NEW SEEDS expresses this conversion.
EVERY MOMENT AND EVERY EVENT of every (one's) man’s life on earth plants something in (our) his soul (s). For just as the wind carries thousands of invisible and visible winged seeds, so the stream of time brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the (our) minds and wills(.) of men. Most of these unnumbered seeds perish and are lost, because (we) men are not prepared to receive them: for such seeds as these cannot spring up anywhere except in the good soil of liberty and desire freedom, spontaneity and love. [pdf page 23, original page 17]
NEW SEEDS OF CONTEMPLATION.pdf
The ever-changing reality in the midst of which we live should awaken us to the possibility of an uninterrupted dialogue with God. By this I do not mean continuous "talk," or a frivolously conversational form of affective prayer which is sometimes cultivated in convents, but a dialogue of love and of choice. A dialogue of deep wills. In all the situations of life the "will of God" comes to us not merely as an external dictate of impersonal law but
above all as an interior invitation of personal love. Too often the conventional conception of "God's will" as a sphinx-like and arbitrary force bearing down upon us with implacable hostility, leads men to lose faith in a God they cannot find it possible to love. Such a view of the divine will drives human weakness to despair and one wonders if it is not, itself, often the expression of a despair too intolerable to be admitted to conscious consideration. These arbitrary "dictates" of a domineering and insensible Father are more often seeds of hatred
than of love. If that is our concept of the will of God, we cannot possibly seek the obscure and intimate mystery of the encounter that takes place in contemplation. We will desire only to fly as far as possible from Him and hide from His Face forever. So much depends on our
idea of God! Yet no idea of Him, however pure and perfect, is adequate to express Him as He really is. Our idea of God tells us more about ourselves than about Him. [pdf pp 31-32. original pages 14-15]
by Roth Fox, O.S.B
This twenty-two page article concludes.
By comparing Seeds with New Seeds we have been able to trace some of the most significant changes that occurred in Merton's thought from 1949 to 1961. Were the changes and developments only a normal process of spiritual growth, or were they indicative of a more profound conversion? That question cannot be objectively answered because any judgment made is based on the subjective experience of the one making it. But the process can be summarized as Donald Grayston writes : "Having fled from the world in anger, self-reproach and confusion, he had returned to it in love and compassion" (Grayston, p. 182). Most of us have observed in contemporary spiritual writers, and in ourselves, a similar development of theology. However, there is this significant difference -- Merton's new and evolving insights traced here were all pre-Vatican II. And that would seem to be very important, perhaps more significant than the changes themselves. Following Vatican II most Catholics expressed a greater compassion and openness to the world, pursued an interest in traditions other than Roman Catholic and made applications of psychology to spirituality. But not many can claim, as Merton could, that this development preceded Vatican II. Perhaps we could say that some of Merton's " Seeds" blossomed in Vatican II, and are even now bearing fruit, probably beyond what even he could have envisioned.