O my God! Whether or not Harlem is the place of my vocation, help me soon to begin to live in perfect Holy Poverty according to Your Word, that my whole life may be given over entirely to Your love and to Your Almighty Will!
Saint Therese of Lisieux, pray for me that I may refuse my God nothing—not the greatest sacrifice, and not even the very smallest! Amen.
Thomas Merton
Part Three: St. Bonaventure’s, New York
4 November 1941
Note: Merton expert Fiona Gardner discusses Thomas Merton’s relationship with St. Thérèse of Lisieux in her 2012 article, “A Tremendous Experience”: The Influence of St. Thérèse of Lisieux on the Spirituality of Thomas Merton, which was published by the International Thomas Merton Society in its scholarly journal, The Merton Seasonal: A Quarterly Review. Thomas Merton was killed on 10 December 1968 in Bangkok, Thailand.
Merton T & Hart P 1995, Run to the mountain: the story of a vocation, 1st edn, HarperSanFrancisco, San Francisco.
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