Thomas Merton:
Re-reading many of Merton’s writings again, the overall thing which sticks out is that his whole life was a teaching or model of a certain way.
Merton’s autobiography was his spirituality. I relate to that. His life itself became a portent, a symbol of the spiritual journey, and, i would say of the process of spiritual growth. He self commentated on and from his whole transformational process. This is the part I relate to the most about Thomas Merton’s life. It was a sign of how to live. Like Jeremiah the prophet and Paul the apostle, his life story was part of his teaching—or rather was his most profound model or teaching. 
We are led by reading his life, to see God’s patterns of working with a 20th century man, and we notice, that he was led to see these same patterns in the church and the world. He begins to see God’s patterns of work in himself, then he applies that outwards to see the same patterns of God’s movements in he church and the world. We are led from knowing God in ourselves, out to see God’s work in His People and the world at large. Lifestyle evangelism you might call it. Or living prophetically.