"When the Trees Say Nothing: Writings on Nature" by Thomas Merton

In this small book we see Thomas Merton very much akin to St. Francis in his love of creation.  For 169 pages he expresses poetically his love of trees, mountains, birds, flowers…everything in nature.  He says that he and these creatures form an ecological balance.  Merton also speaks of “non-ecology.”  Examples include the destructive un-balance of nature caused by poisons, bombs, fallout, exploitation – with contaminated water, ruined land, chemicals in the soil and machinery ravaging the ground.

He says also that wealth is poison, that there is no misery that can compare with that of those who live with total success of technology, that the greatest poverty is among the prosperous.  Speaking to people in Third World countries where they have nothing, he asks if they imagine that they would no longer in need if they were to become as prosperous as those living in the United States.  He answers “No,” that there they would be in even greater need.

Merton does not extol poverty as a basic virtue, as does Francis, and he says that for himself he needs to live alone, in the silence of the forest, where the dark warmth of the world is his love, that he needs to be alone at “the resurrection of the day,” at the moment when the affairs of governments, of cities, of war departments seem of little worth.

So Merton’s idea of poverty and his insistence of needing to be alone in the enjoyment of nature differ radically from Francis’ extolling of “Lady Poverty,” and his love for brotherhood.  But it is very interesting to see to what extent Merton’s ideas are quite “Franciscan.”

This book paints a new picture of Thomas Merton and his spirituality.  I think you would enjoy it.