In the last battle before the start of the highly anticipated Elate Eight (aka the Saintly Kitsch round), Thomas Merton takes on Charles Wesley. Poet vs. hymn writer. Both were brothers, of course -- one a monastic brother (Trappist) and one an actual brother (to John Wesley). It's the final match-up of the Saintly Sixteen!
In a quick media round-up, everyone's favorite online Lenten devotion was featured last week on National Public Radio, Christianity Today, and even the Methodists got in on the action with a post on UMC.org, the official online ministry of the Methodist Church (something tells us they may be especially interested in today's match-up). Also, Archbishops John and Thomas made their national television debut on Bloomberg TV.
What's the secret behind all the Lent Madness love out there (besides the warm and fuzzy nature of the Supreme Executive Committee)? Forward Movement Managing Editor Richelle Thompson shares her take in an article titled "If At First You Don't Succeed" on the Episcopal Church Foundation's Vital Practices webpage (Hint: no high priced PR consultants were harmed in this process).
And if you're looking to take the edge off Monday Morning, watch the Archbishops' Update as they preview the Lent Madness week ahead.
Finally, we're making progress in our campaign to reach 10,000 likes on Facebook before awarding the Golden Halo! We're pushing 9,650 so make sure to share our page with everyone you know. We suggest pilfering the parish directory and sending handwritten notes to everybody urging them to like Lent Madness immediately.
Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton is considered by many to be the voice of the contemplative tradition in the modern world. His books, over 30 of them, reinvigorated those interested in contemplative practice. Given his voluminous amount of writing, his quotes were more than plentiful.
The quirks, however, are what make his quotes matter. Perhaps the quirk was his life of self contradictions. An unhappy child and unsettled adolescent became an adult who, on a street corner in Kentucky, was overwhelmed with the realization he loved all these people, "that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers.”
A man with an extravagant personality and celebrity also craved his own space, eventually granted, somewhat grudgingly, in The Hermitage. A deeply devout Trappist who described his order as one that “carried communism to its ultimate limit” also explored the truths in Eastern faith. A sometimes hermit shared his soul and spirit with millions through his words. A man who, in his later years, fell in love with a nurse, writing her love poetry, wrote love poetry to his monastic life, as well, and ultimately reaffirmed his life as a Trappist before his untimely death. Even that too held contradictions: the avid peace activist’s body was flown to Kentucky on a military plane.
Merton was a writer, a poet, an artist, a jazz aficionado, a dissident, a lover, a peace activist, a hermit, a celebrity, and a man -- all held in union in his deeply contemplative soul. The illusion is that we are non-contradictory. To find our true selves, filled with beauty and contradictions and other-ness, we must enter into contemplation. For Merton, “We become contemplatives when God discovers Himself in us.”
Through contemplation, we seek truth. Merton writes, “We make ourselves real by telling the truth....But he can forget how badly he needs to tell the truth....We must be true inside, true to ourselves, before we can know a truth that is outside us.”
And that truth? That self that is beyond illusion, that welcomes our contradictions, our paradoxes and ambiguities? In that space is God.
The man who is not afraid to admit everything that he sees to be wrong with himself, and yet recognizes that he may be the object of God’s love precisely because of his shortcomings, can be sincere. His sincerity is based on confidence, not in his illusions about himself, but in the endless, unfailing mercy of God.
When all our shortcomings, our hypocrisies, our failings...when all that we’d rather not expose about ourselves is welcomed into contemplative union with God, we become part of the dance that is in the midst of us, “for it beats in our very blood whether we want it to or not."
In the midst of Lent Madness, remember Merton’s call to cast our awful solemnity to the winds and join God’s dance.
Here is a video of a monk from Gethsemani praying one of Merton’s most famous prayers:
-- Laurie Brock
Charles Wesley
Charles Wesley (1707-1788), who with his brother John was among the chief leaders of the Methodist Revival within the Church of England, is especially quotable, having penned well over 6,000 hymns during his lifetime, in addition to a multitude of sermons a personal writings. Wesley knew well the power of hymns to convey theology to a wide audience.
One of Wesley’s great hymns was written on the anniversary of his inner conversion, which he described as “a strange palpitation of the heart.” The hymn spanned some eighteen verses, including some no longer in common use today, speaking to the theme of the assurance of salvation by the presence of the Holy Spirit:
O for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer’s praise
The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace!On this glad day the glorious Sun Of Righteousness arose;
On my benighted soul He shone, and fill’d it with repose.Then with my heart I first believed, Believed with faith Divine;
Power with the Holy Ghost received, to call the Saviour mine.
Some of Wesley’s hymns weren’t as “worship-ready.” After his brother John appointed Thomas Coke as Superintendent for the Methodists in America – giving to Coke the responsibilities in America that would have belonged to a Bishop in the Church of England – Charles Wesley penned a sarcastic verse to express his sense of anger and betrayal:
So easily are Bishops made
By man’s or woman’s whim?
Wesley his hands on Coke hath laid,
But who laid hands on him?
But the vast majority of his hymns, however, remain firmly entrenched on our lips. As a man who often preached in the fields to people unable to reach a parish church, yet another text speaks to the heart of Charles Wesley’s ministry:
Ye servants of God, your Master proclaim,
And publish abroad His wonderful Name;
The Name all victorious of Jesus extol,
His kingdom is glorious and rules over all.
But it is one of his hymns written on the theme of Christian perfection that is perhaps the most beloved. The hymn is among the most fitting and most quotable summations of the theology and ministry of this incredible theologian, preacher, and author:
Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of heaven to earth come down;
Fix in us thy humble dwelling;
All thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus, Thou art all compassion,
Pure unbounded love Thou art;
Visit us with Thy salvation;
Enter every trembling heart.Come, Almighty to deliver,
Let us all Thy life receive;
Suddenly return and never,
Never more Thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
Serve Thee as Thy hosts above,
Pray and praise Thee without ceasing,
Glory in Thy perfect love.Finish then thy new creation:
pure and spotless let us be
Let us see thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in thee
Changed from glory into glory
‘til in heaven we take our place
‘til we cast our crowns before thee,
lost in wonder, love and praise!
-- David Sibley
Vote!
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162 comments on “Thomas Merton vs. Charles Wesley”
Can't do Easter without "Christ the Lord is Ris'n Today"!!!
Yes!
While I have loved and sung Charles's hymns all my life--and will continue to do so for the rest of it--I voted today for Thomas because of where I am spiritually in my life. This day is about contemplation and paradox.
But it *was* cool to see all those stiff-upper-Brits singing "Love Divine"! And splendid of the Royals to include it in the wedding.
My Birthday -- Charles' Feast Day. A slender connection. I sought a better reason to vote. I found myself voting AGAINST Thomas as I contemplated certain things that disturb me, pretty much only on the basis of having read Seven Storey Mountain. That assessment could well be my problem not his, as well as the inadequacies of my bias toward Reformed theology.
Charles sought constructive, not pentitential discipline. Charles adored a dynamic Jesus of mill and market, not the static Jesus of tabernacle and monstrance. Charles came to me at a younger age and clings to me still. Putting away childish things compels me to accept the challenge Thomas represents. But Charles, though dear to the child, is not among childish things. He's among Faith, Hope, and Charity.
Toughest match up to date!
I give thanks for both of them this time. However.....Thomas got my vote. Today the contradictions of life call me to Merton's kind of faith. The question mark is our top spiritual signpost and anyone who doesn't think so must be living in a dreamworld not open to me. Hyfrydol, the tune of "Love Divine" was my parents' favorite hymn and we sang it at both of their memorial services.
I'm realizing that I love the words because I associate them with that music. Not that the words aren't astounding, but the music is sublime. Now my choice is harder.
and another great Wesley hymn!
Happy Birthday!! My sister is Catherine, Kit for short too! I haven't quite decided who to vote for yet. Better go contemplate.
I agree. It just seems confusing to have my mind hearing one tune, while my ears hear another. Loved the great view of all the hats, however. Was it a little bit cheating of Wesley's celebrity blogger to use video of the Royal Wedding? All that bedazzle.
Another Peg, I, too, was touched by seeing Kate singing a hymn obviously known to her. Not just a poser, that one! And I loved seeing all those great hats, but would not liked to have been next to the lady in the white hat with all the feathery things sticking out. That was just a "poke in the eye" waiting to happen.
The one who sings prayers twice...so it is Charles for me. It is looking mighty close at the time I voted. Will there be a runoff if they come in as a tie?
Seemed like a tough choice at first, but Wesley wrote hymns and helped (unintentionally) found a new offshoot of the mainline Protestant Church. Thomas Merton, on the other hand, is perhaps one of the first of the true Emergence Christianity movement - a concept that only recently became familiar to me, but speaks to the need for ecumenical acceptance of the spirit of God in all, regardless of the human reflection of their faith traditions. Thomas is an early and major force in what is becoming a huge paradigm shift in how we view spirituality, our Lord, our own relationship with Christ as Christians, and with those of other faith traditions that we must recognize the face of God in to survive.
I love Thomas Merton, but as a United Methodist clergy - my vote goes to Charles Wesley!
MERTON WAS SUCH AN ALL AROUND CHILD OF GOD....THERE CAN BE NO OTHER VOTE.
Merton gets my vote. Man of contemplation and contradictions--sounds like a Golden Halo recipient to me!
Thank you David Sibley for that wonderful video of the hymn sung at the Royal wedding. I would have voted for Charles Wesley anyway, but that video was very fun to watch. Thanks.
Same here!
Brother Louis has my vote~always!
Another tough one. I go with the hymn-writer, whose hymns have moved me to tears and flights of rapture [even though I stayed quite Episcopally grounded].
Mos Def, Two Cool Cats, but Wesley gets my vote for making the best mix tape for Jesus! Just like my college boyfriends.. No denying this one!
So tough. What a way to get ready for the final four!!!! I think for me the picture of William & Kate knowing they were singing Love Divine was the final deciding fact for me I must admit that I won't be upset with either one.
I do not know how to vote, but I trust that the desire to vote for both does in fact inspire and that both these saints will continue to lead the way regardless of who wins the vote today.
I voted Thomas Merton - that prayer just did it for me. If Anna Cooper could beat out Bach, is Charles Wesley toast in the next round?
(My Catholic roots are showing here - I'm not familiar with any of these hymns.)
I knew Roman Catholics didn't sing many of the hymns, but surely they sing Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.
Cistercian!
I know that Hark! The Herald Angels Sing is in the Catholic hymnal, I went to two different Catholic Universities!
I believe I have also heard Catholics sing Jesus Christ is Risen Today, also by Charles Wesley!
Doesn't everyone sing something by Charles Wesley?
Charles Wesley: Jesus Christ is Risen Today! Hymn Tune: Easter Hymn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT7dGcsrPkQ
Charles Wesley: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing Tune Mendelssohn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCt1s44cfMM
Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world. -- Martin Luther
Reading Merton's Asian Journal during Lent, I am grateful for his inspired commitment to join the early dialogues with other leaders of world religions. In my life time I have seen the fruit of his work. No stranger to Wesley, I am certain he sang “Christ the Lord is Ris’n Today” many times. With that in mind, my vote goes to Merton (free throw!).
Must vote for "Love Divine," my favorite hymn (though only when sung to Hyfrydol), though also voting for younger brother Charles' dig to older brother John's hubris.
This one is REALLY HARD!
My first instinct was to go with Wesley, his hymns are incredible! I was thinking about how they always made me feel good. And Merton has ways made me so very uncomfortable... That's when I decided to go with Merton. Yes, he makes me squirm - he struggled - so do I. How he got through those troubles and the growth he showed and his honesty made me realize that although the wonderful words of prayer contained in Wesley's hymns are an important part of my prayer life, perhaps the Holy Spirit is nudging me this Lent to walk a more challenging path. So it's Merton for me.
I've been reading Merton since I was a high school kid forty-some years ago but, oddly, I voted for Aelred in the last round. Oh well, I'm sure Merton would have approved of my vote for his Cistercian predecessor. I know Charles Wesley is a huge presence but I see Merton as more contemporary; flawed, yet continually seeking God and something of a change-agent. As a nod to our decades long friendship, Confrater Maria Ludovicus gets my vote today.
When in two weeks from last Sunday, virtually every church in the world sings Jesus Christ is Risen Today (on Easter Sunday, except for the Eastern Orthodox), you will know just how "contemporary" Charles Wesley is!
I would choose Merton for Lent and Wesley for Pentecost. And to those of you who like Hyfrydol - so do I! I was 'weaned' on it in South Wales and learnt it first in welsh...Calon Lan 🙂
Christine, do you recognize the tune to which the Royals sang "Love Divine"? And why would they possibly choose it over Hyfrydol? Didn't realize that was not the original tune to which Wesley penned his hymn.
Hi Linda! I can't remember the tune the Royals had but I remember being puzzled by it! And I seem to have got myself confused over Hyfrydol. I play the keyboard at church and we have Hyfrydol for 'Healing God, Almighty Father' - and also for two other hymns because everyone likes it so much! For 'Love Divine' we have Blaenwern 🙂 When I was in primary school in Wales, we also sang 'Calon Lan' to a tune called Gwyrosydd by John Hughes!
Hope we can solve the mystery of which tune the Royals had 🙂
Christine
Christine, looks like it was Blaenwern that the Royals used as well. Might give your congregation a kick to sing "Love Divine" to Hyfyrdol. It's much more cheerful (isn't that what Hyfyrdol means in Welch?).
Who said he wrote the music?
I think that is essentially correct!
I just couldn't decide today. Anna Cooper has NC connections, so I will probably vote for her in the Elate 8 anyway...same for Thomas Gallaudet who was associate rector of my parish for a while.
Hokey Smoke Bullwinkle, this just keeps getting harder!! I voted for Wesley, though I am inclined to just dump all this competition and strew haloes hither and yon!!
hurrah for charles! so glad he prevailed. now, on to the golden halo. i love lent madness!
The polls are still open on the West Coast!
So much about Charles' music but he didn't write the music, he wrote the hymns. The hymns were put to the music. I just wanted to point this or some several people shafted that they chose the music over poetry. Charles hymns are basically poetry that was put to music. Just saying. I voted for Merton, a man very much of our times.
I agree with Phil, above, on this whole contemporary business..... poetry is contemporary yesterday, today and tomorrow
Argh! That is, as several people stated that they choose music over poetry. Dang auto correct!
Surely the vote is not over. It's only 1:30 in the afternoon here in Hawaii. Let's not be to hasty.
"Wesley his hands on Coke hath laid,
But who laid hands on him?"
Yow!
One of the things that draws me to Charles is that he upheld the Apostolic Succession of bishops (which links us in the present day to the earliest believers in Jesus).
Thank you, celebrity blogger, for posting the video of Father Matthew reading Thomas Merton's famous prayer. Though I've been Episcopalian for the last 15 years, I go down to Gethsemani once or twice a year for a silent retreat. You can really feel close to Merton there, and pray by his grave. The monks certainly couldn't care less what denomination or religion you are. I got to have a talk with Father Matthew a few times, and back a few years ago when he was well enough to give his evening talks I would always go to them when I was there. The video made me tear up.
Though I'm a little disappointed Merton lost, I suspect that he thinks this whole thing is hilarious, and that he and Charles are having a beer and laughing together...
By the way, someone had mentioned The Seven Storey Mountain. Later in life, though he always stayed true to the Catholic church, he said he wasn't the man who had written that book any more. His later writings were different, and reflect how far ranging his spiritual journey was. He was also just an incredible writer, especially in his journals.
My contradictory soul finds comfort in the words of Thomas Merton, therefore he's getting my vote.