A Matter of the Heart: A Monk’s Journal

A contemplative monk’s musings on living a ＂useless life.＂

＂Brother Paul bears witness of being keenly aware that every aspect of his monastic vocation has been carefully crafted to nurture and protect the contemplative way of life in which one is called to seek and to find and give oneself to God who is wholly poured out and given to us in the gift of life itself.＂ --James Finley, author of The Healing Path

In the spirit of Thomas Merton’s The Sign of Jonas come five decades of life at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky from the private journals of one of Merton’s former novices, Brother Paul Quenon.

Readers are introduced to multiple aspects--the inwards and outwards--of a monk’s life. Reflections, meditations, insights, and wanderings are mingled with outward experiences in nature, community, and sketches of monks--saintly, comical, or strange--poetic moments. Remarks are made on world events, seen from a local and momentary perspective, such as the war in Iraq, or the end of the war in Vietnam. Private discoveries of animal behavior, and magical locations for prayer are experienced with wonder. No daily chronology is followed, but entries are arranged from the 1970s to the 2000s according to the decade they occurred in, including the visit of the Dalai Lama and other occasions when this contemplative’s life has intersected with spiritual teachers outside the monastery. Overall, a multi-colored, diverse, and surprising display of what it is like to live ＂an enclosed life.＂

Brother Paul Quenon, OCSO entered the Abbey of Gethsemani at 17. Thomas Merton was his novice master. Remarkable teachers and mentors furthered his development, such as John Eudes Bamberger, Dan Walsh, Flavian Burns, Pico Iyer, and Beatrice Bruteau. He studied theology at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, and taught and lived at a monastery in Nigeria. He has played an active role in the International Thomas Merton Society for a half-century. His memoir, In Praise of the Useless Life, received a Catholic Press Award, and he has published ten books of poetry. Now in his eighties, he continues his life of choir, prayer meditation, and cooking at the monastery.