my book report

I was reading this book, The Seven Story Mountain, by Thomas Merton, last night. It's taken me more than a month to read it - the first half of it or so was describing how screwed up his life was because he wasn't following Jesus and it was kind of boring, but then after he gets baptized it gets a lot better. Thomas wants to join a monastery, but gets told that he doesn't have that vocation after telling the Abbot what happened in his life before he was converted. But then, he talks to more people and then he takes a retreat at a Trappist monastery in Kentucky. He goes back to his job at a college teaching a writing class, but continues to think about joining a monastery. Last night I read this part about how after Thomas gets accepted into the Trappist monastery, he is talking about what the monks do for work and how they don't pause for contemplation, they are just supposed to work and, if they get the chance, "to mutter 'All for Jesus! All for Jesus!' through their teeth" while they are still cutting hay or whatever it was he was describing. I remembered reading that this morning while I was doing the dishes and it really makes chores and things easier, if you really do do it for Jesus.