When the Trees Say Nothing: Writings on Nature

First published in 2003 and now available in paperback to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of Thomas Merton's birth, When the Trees Say Nothing has sold more than 60,000 copies and continually inspires readers with its unique collection of Merton's luminous writings on nature, arranged for reflection and meditation.

Thomas Merton was a Trappist monk, author, poet, social commentator, and perhaps the most influential and widely published spiritual writer of the twentieth century. In When the Trees Say Nothing, editor Kathleen Deignan sheds new light on Merton by focusing on a neglected theme of his writing: the natural world as a manifestation of the divine.

Drawing from Merton's voluminous writing on nature, Deignan has thematically assembled a collection of lucid, poetic reflections. Chapters on the four elements, the seasons, the Earth and its creatures, and the sun, moon, and stars provide brief passages from his diverse works that reveal the presence of God in creation.

Thomas Merton (1915–1968) is widely acclaimed as one of the most influential spiritual masters of the twentieth century. A Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, he was a poet, social activist, and student of comparative religion. In 1949, he was ordained to the priesthood and given the name Father Louis. Merton wrote more than seventy books, mostly on spirituality, social justice, and a quiet pacifism, as well as scores of essays and reviews, including his best-selling autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain.

Kathleen Deignan, C.N.D., a sister of the Congregation of Notre Dame, is a teaching theologian, psalmist, and composer of more than 200 songs for liturgy and prayer produced by Schola Ministries. She received her master’s degree in spirituality studies and her doctorate in historical theology from Fordham University in New York, where she studied with her mentor, the late geologian Fr. Thomas Berry, in whose honor she and three other Berry students founded The Thomas Berry Forum for Ecological Dialogue at Iona.

Deignan is a professor of religious studies at Iona College, where she founded and directs the Iona Spirituality Institute, a project for the celebration and study of the spiritual life. The institute has sponsored her work in interfaith dialogue, peace and justice studies, and spiritual animation in the United States and abroad, particularly in Ireland where she has worked to foster the legacy of Thomas Merton. In 2009, she received Fordham’s Sapientia et Doctrina Award for her work in spirituality and, in 2014, an honorary degree from her alma mater, Sacred Heart University.

An editor of five books, including A Book of Hours (Sorin Books, 2007), Deignan has also written many articles that have appeared in The Way, Review for Religious, Sisters Today, The Merton Seasonal, The Merton Annual, Cross Currents, Franciscan Review, Diakonia, Sacred Journey and Monastic Interreligious Dialogue Bulletin. Deignan is a GreenFaith Fellow, and former president of the International Thomas Merton Society. She sits on the boards of The American Teilhard Association, The International Thomas Merton Society, GreenFaith, and The Giuliani Foundation for Religion and the Arts.

Thomas Berry (1914-2009) was a priest, an environmentalist, and the author of many books, including The Dream of the Earth.

Internationally known artist John Giuliani is an American spiritual and cultural treasure. His widely acclaimed works, which typically blend Native American images with traditional Christian iconography, are displayed in churches across the United States. Giuliani oversees The Benedictine Grange, a spiritual center in West Redding, Connecticut, which he founded in 1977.