Thoughts in Solitude is a collection of meditations by Thomas Merton, the American Trappist monk at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky. Written during 1953 and 1954, when Merton was granted extended periods of solitude by his superiors, the text was published in 1958 by Farrar, Straus and Cudahy. The book is organized in two parts: Part One examines aspects of the spiritual life, including the role of meditation, humility, silence, and the disposition of the soul before God; Part Two, "The Love of Solitude," reflects on the interior freedom that withdrawal from the world makes possible. The second part contains the meditation known as the Merton Prayer ("My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going…"), which circulates widely in modern contemplative anthologies and retreat programmes well outside the Catholic tradition.
The book stands alongside The Seven Storey Mountain and New Seeds of Contemplation as one of Merton's most reprinted works, valued for its concision and accessibility to lay readers. It belongs to the period before Merton's public engagement with Buddhism, civil rights, and the peace movement, and is sometimes read as a transitional work: the individualist frame of solitary prayer coexists with the social and inter-religious commitments of his later writing. Its brevity — the text runs to about 123 pages — makes it an accessible entry into Merton's approach to contemplative practice.
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Part Two: The Love of Solitude
First lines
The spiritual life is first of all a life. It is not merely something to be known and studied, it is to be lived. Like all life, it grows sick and dies when it is uprooted from its proper element. Grace is engrafted on our nature and the whole man is sanctified by the presence and action of the Holy Spirit.
Contents
Part One: Aspects of the Spiritual Life
Part Two: The Love of Solitude
Reception
One of Merton's most reprinted books after The Seven Storey Mountain and New Seeds of Contemplation, valued for its concision and its accessibility to lay readers. Critics have noted that the book's individualist frame coexists awkwardly with Merton's later social-justice and inter-religious writing; it is sometimes read as a transitional work before his 1960s engagement with Buddhism, civil rights, and the peace movement. The book's prayer fragment circulates more widely than the book itself.
Frequently asked
What is Thoughts in Solitude about?
It is a collection of Trappist meditations by Thomas Merton on solitude, prayer, and the interior life, written in 1953–1954 during periods of extended seclusion at the Abbey of Gethsemani. Part One covers aspects of the spiritual life; Part Two, "The Love of Solitude," contains the widely circulated Merton Prayer.
What is the Merton Prayer?
The Merton Prayer is a short meditation from Part Two of the book, beginning "My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going." It has been reprinted in countless contemplative anthologies and retreat materials, and is used by readers well outside the Catholic tradition.
How does Thoughts in Solitude relate to Merton's other books?
It belongs to the same contemplative period as The Seven Storey Mountain (1948) and No Man Is an Island (1955). It predates Merton's later engagement with Buddhism and social justice, and is sometimes read as a transitional work between his early monastic writing and the broader inter-religious work of his 1960s period.