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January 2, 1966. Feast of Holy Name of Jesus
It has been raining steadily for almost 36 hours. This morning toward the end of my meditation the rain was pouring down on the roof of the hermitage with great force and the woods resounded with tons of water falling out of the sky. It was great! A good beginning for a New Year. Yesterday in a lull I was looking across the valley at black wet hills, sharply outlined against the woods, and white patches of water everywhere in the bottoms: a landscape well etched by serious weather.
Working on an essay for Hildegard Goss-Mayr ([for] Der Christ in der Welt). Reading E.A. Burtt's book, sent by him from Cornell -- and galleys of a good book on the Church trans[lated] from Dutch [The Grave of God: Has the Church a Future? New York, 1967]. The author is an Augustinian, R. Adolfs. Still have Endo Mason's excellent book on [Rainer Maria] Rilke and England. Reading Romans in lectio and finding it difficult (chs. 5-6). Finished a curious journalistic book on the liberation of Paris -- a symbolic event! Hitler was set on annihilating the city and his military evaded the order. De Gaulle and the communists, etc. One cannot help admiring de Gaulle, even though he is a stubborn ass. There is something providential about his character. He was just reelected President of France in December. I like him better than Churchill, anyway!
Learning to Love. Copyright © by Thomas Merton. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.
