“Take my breath . . .


and buy yourself a better death . . .


And buy you back to your own land


The silence of Whose tears shall fall


Like bells upon your alien tomb.


Hear them and come,


They call you home.”

Written by Thomas Merton for his brother Sgt. John Paul Merton killed on the 16/17th April 1943.

Thomas Merton, O.C.S.O. (January 31, 1915 – December 10, 1968 Age 53.) was an American Catholic writer and mystic. 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.