Thomas Merton's Plaque

There’s a plaque in downtown Louisville that marks the spot where Thomas Merton, the Trappist Catholic monk, had a mystical experience while running errands for his monastery. The plaque can be seen at the intersection of what used to be 4th and Walnut (now 4th and Muhammad Ali Blvd - see the Google street view showing the plaque behind the lamppost).

In Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, Merton writes:

“In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness. …This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud.

…it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts, where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time.

… if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.”

Other Thomas Merton quotes:

"The saints are what they are, not because their sanctity makes them admirable to others, but because the gift of sainthood makes it possible for them to admire everybody else."

"The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image."

See Quotes from Thomas Merton for other quotes