I have been on a reading binge lately, thanks to Ami O’Neill allowing me to rummage through Mike’s incredible collection of theological and spiritual books. I took only the ones I was sure I would read, because I am already surrounded by boxes of books for which I have yet to find shelf space.

Mike’s library reinforced for me the strong personal, intellectual, and spiritual bond that existed between us during his extraordinary life, and now is consciously renewed every time I open (one of the four volumes of) The Liturgy of the Hours, or Joan Chittister’s Wisdom Distilled from the Daily, or Teilhard de Chardin’s Hymn of the Universe. In the car, I listen to his CD of “Singing Bowls of Tibet,” and tapes of retreat addresses by the Franciscan Richard Rohr and various Zen Masters previously unknown to me. We read a lot of the same books, but Mike kept up better, and now I am the beneficiary of his accumulated wisdom.  

Most intriguing to me are two volumes that influenced me a great deal as a college student. Both were published in the 1950’s and contain written text by Thomas Merton as well as stark, black-and-white photos illustrating monastic life. Those photos have haunted the back layers of my imagination for 50 years, and to have them suddenly emerge from among my dead friend’s cherished possessions is both heart-breaking and profoundly reassuring. No wonder we became like brothers in such a short time. No wonder he affirmed my spiritual instincts so enthusiastically. No wonder he recognized my demons so readily, and exorcized them so gently. They were all familiar to him from his own life journey.

“The spirit of man (sic…this WAS 1956!) is a void that waits for the Spirit of God, a deep space that remains in chaos until the creative Spirit of God hovers over it, and until perfect light is poured into its transparent depths by the presence of the Word.” Thomas Merton, Silence in Heaven, p. 17.