The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

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Author QuotedJosef Pieper
Title QuotedLeisure, The Basis of Culture
Date (Year/Month/Day)1959/12/10
Imprint[S.l.] : [s.n.]. 1952
QuotationI have finally gotten around to reading Pieper's fine little book Leisure, The Basis of Culture. It is very sound and no amount of guilt should make us treat his view of contemplation as "pagan" as if that were to exclude "Christian." One thing is sure-we do not in this monastery have any faith in the basic value of otium sanctum [sacred leisure]. We believe only in the difficult and the unpleasant. That is why we, in practice, hate the contemplative life and destroy it with constant activity.
Quotation SourceA Search for Solitude: Pursuing the Monk's True Life. The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 3, 1952-1960.; Edited by Lawrence S. Cunningham. / San Francisco : Harper Collins. 1996, p. 356
Letter to 
Notes 
Link to Merton's Copy  

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