The June meeting of the Grand Rapids chapter of the International Thomas Merton Society is this Wednesday night, the 8th, starting at 7:00.
Once again, we will meet here:
Orchard View Church of God
2777 Leffingwell Ave NE
Grand Rapids, MI 49525
Orchard View Church of God is located at the corner of 3 Mile Rd and Leffingwell in the northeast section of Grand Rapids. Easy access is via the East Beltline. Get off at the 3 Mile Road exit. Leffingwell is on the south side of 3 Mile Road between the East Beltline and Dean Lake Road. (You can see the church from 3 Mile Road.)
For our June 8th meeting, we will discuss pages 327 through 462 in The Seven Storey Mountain.
No matter what edition of the book you have, these are the chapters to read:
Part Three
Chapter Two: True North
Chapter Three: The Sleeping Volcano
Chapter Four: The Sweet Savor of Liberty
Epilogue
If we don’t get through the rest of the book at our upcoming meeting, we’ll carry the discussion over to July. But it’s such a breezy, fun, and compelling book that I’m pretty sure we can get through it this week.
For our next book, we may wish to read one of the two following books:
The Waters of Siloe (1949)
[NOTE: If we’d like to continue reading Merton in chronological order, this would be the logical choice. It presents the history of the Trappist order and why they found their way to Kentucky, which is where Merton found them. It was written after The Seven Storey Mountain.]
New Seeds of Contemplation (1961)
[NOTE: We originally read this book five years ago. So it would be a re-read. There are pros and cons to that. The biggest con is that we won’t be discovering something new together, as we would if we read The Waters of Siloe. Plus, it’s more of a historical book. But it’s a good one. The biggest pro to re-reading New Seeds of Contemplation is that it would be fascinating to discover if we understand Merton – and ourselves! – more now than we did five years ago.]
You bring your copy of The Seven Storey Mountain. We’ll provide treats, bottled water, and a lot of fun discussion.
See you Wednesday night!
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