Thomas Merton ( 10 of 23 )
The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which read more
The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.
Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony.
Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony.
Commemoration of Thomas Merton, Monk, Spiritual Writer, 1968 This matter of "salvation" is, when seen intuitively, a very read more
Commemoration of Thomas Merton, Monk, Spiritual Writer, 1968 This matter of "salvation" is, when seen intuitively, a very simple thing. But when we analyze it, it turns into a complex tangle of paradoxes. We become ourselves by dying to ourselves. We gain only what we give up, and if we give up everything we gain everything. We cannot find ourselves within ourselves, but only in others; yet at the same time, before we can go out to others we must first find ourselves. We must forget ourselves in order to become truly conscious of who we are. The best way to love ourselves is to love others; yet we cannot love others unless we love ourselves, since it is written, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." But if we love ourselves in the wrong way, we become incapable of loving anybody else. And indeed when we love ourselves wrongly, we hate ourselves; if we hate ourselves we cannot help hating others. Yet there is a sense in which we must hate others and leave them in order to find God... As for this finding of God, we cannot even look for Him unless we have already found Him, and we cannot find Him unless He has first found us. We cannot begin to seek Him without a special gift of His grace; yet if we wait for grace to move us before beginning to seek Him, we will probably never begin.
The most dangerous man in the world is the contemplative who is guided by nobody. He trusts his own visions. read more
The most dangerous man in the world is the contemplative who is guided by nobody. He trusts his own visions. He obeys the attractions of an interior voice but will not listen to other men. He identifies the will of God with anything that makes him feel, within his own heart, a big, warm, sweet interior glow. The sweeter and the warmer the feeling is, the more he is convinced of his own infallibility.
Commemoration of Thomas Merton, Monk, Spiritual Writer, 1968 The great thing, and the only thing, is to adore and read more
Commemoration of Thomas Merton, Monk, Spiritual Writer, 1968 The great thing, and the only thing, is to adore and praise God.
If you want to study the social and political history of modern nations, study hell
If you want to study the social and political history of modern nations, study hell
By reading the scriptures I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me. The sky read more
By reading the scriptures I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me. The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green. The whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music under my feet.
Prayer is the movement of trust, of gratitude, of adoration, or of sorrow, that places us before God, seeing both read more
Prayer is the movement of trust, of gratitude, of adoration, or of sorrow, that places us before God, seeing both Him and ourselves in the light of His infinite truth, and moves us to ask Him for the mercy, the spiritual strength, the material help, that we all need. The man whose prayer is so pure that he never asks God for anything does not know who God is, and does not know who he is himself: for he does not know his own need of God. All true prayer somehow confesses our absolute dependence on the Lord of life and death. It is, therefore, a deep and vital contact with Him whom we know not only as Lord but as Father. It is when we pray truly that we really are. Our being is brought to a high perfection by this.
October is a fine and dangerous season in America . . . a
wonderful time to begin anything at read more
October is a fine and dangerous season in America . . . a
wonderful time to begin anything at all.
The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid read more
The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt
