Wisdom Wednesday: Chris Pramuk on Merton’s Observations in Harlem

This week’s #WisdomWednesday features author and theologian Dr. Christopher Pramuk during the 2015 Festival of Faiths. In this session, Pramuk recalls another epiphany in Thomas Merton’s life — somewhat less idealized than his well-known encounter at the corner of Fourth and Walnut Street — but “no less revealing.” In describing this epiphany while visiting New York City in the summer of 1964, Merton wrote about the beauty of Harlem: “The noise of traffic and the uninterrupted cries of playing children, cries of life and joy coming out of purgatory, loud and strong the voice of a great living organism.”