Awake and Alive: Thomas Merton According to His Novices

Collecting anecdotes from several of Thomas Merton’s former novices, this book offers readers an opportunity to meet the famous monk and writer as a monastic brother, confessor, spiritual director, and friend. The title, Awake and Alive, reflects a way of being in the world, familiar to millions of readers of Merton’s books. It was Merton who first made the treasures of monastic life and monastic spirituality accessible to people outside the cloister. In many respects, what he did for his students at the Abbey of Gethsemani, he did for those who read him still, hear his recorded lectures, and continue today to follow his path.  

Jon M. Sweeney is Editor at Large at Orbis Books and the author of more than forty books including The Pope Who Quit, which was optioned by HBO, The Complete Francis of Assisi, Meister Eckhart’s Book of the Heart (coauthored with Mark S. Burrows), and Thomas Merton: An Introduction to His Life, Teachings, and Practices.