Seven Storey Mountian-3

If people had more appreciation of what it means to be converted from rank, savage paganism.. . to the living faith and to the church, they would not think of Catechism as something trivial." "I was never bored. I never missed an instruction. . . I now began to bum with desire for Baptism."

Another desire now begins to form in his mind-to become a priest.

" I was about to set foot on the shore at the foot of the high, seven -circled mountain of a Purgatory steeper and more arduous than I was able to imagine, and I was not at all aware of the climbing I was about to have to do."

He speaks about the state of his mind after his baptism and confession (I tore out all those sins by their roots, like teeth).

"Heaven was entirely mine-that heaven in which sharing makes no division or diminution... Christ, hidden in the small Host.. . was giving Himself for me, and to me, and, with himself, the entire Godhead and Trinity... for now I had entered into the everlasting movement of that gravitation which is the very life and spirit of God.. . And God, that center who is everywhere, and whose circumference is nowhere, finding me...And he called out to me from His own immense depths."(p.225)

He gives a very poignant reflection on his prayer life: "And to such a one I would say: Whoever you are... your old life and your former ways are crucified now... sacrifice your pleasures and comforts for the love of god and give the money that you no longer spend on those things, to the poor."

While spending time with his friends, he comes to another major decision in his life: " I am going to be a priest. "(P.253)

He meets with Dan Walsh, another visiting member of the Faculty at Columbia who gives him a short briefing of the various religious orders in the Church. He suggests him the Franciscan order for him to join. Merton becomes a daily communicant. He is looking for an order that will accept him for priesthood. Finally, he decides to join the Trappists at Gethsemany. He had been there earlier for a retreat. Before moving over to the monastery, he has entertained an idea to work in Harlem after having listened to a spirited talk by Baroness De Huck. Merton joins the monastery-hands over the little possessions he had to the Treasurer. He participates in the Advent liturgy and does all the menial tasks that were entrusted to him. He describes his brother John Paul's visit to the monastery and his reception of baptism at the monastery. Later, Merton receives the news of the death of his brother while he was participating in an air raid as a bomber pilot with the American Air Force. Towards the end of the book, Merton praises God for being given the grace to experience Him: "My God, it is that gap and that distance which kill me...That is the only reason why I desire solitude... to be lost to all created things, to die to them.. . for they remind me of my distance from you.

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