We do not want to be beginners [at prayer]. but let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything but beginners, all our life!

Francis of Assisi on 31st Street. Merton began routinely praying but discontinued the practice after leaving the school. During his initial months of schooling Merton begged his father to remove him.

O. T. Merton was a keen proponent of interfaith understanding.