The sunset and the beautiful colors of nature warmed my heart this evening. We had a lovely late afternoon with friends and this scene greeted us as we drove back into our neighborhood. These words of Thomas Merton spoke to my heart as well. Considering the wonder and beauty of God’s creation I cannot help but feel the certain kinship that he talked about in his journal entry on November 4, 1964.
In the afternoon, lots of pretty little myrtle warblers were playing and diving for insects in the low pine branches over my head, so close I could almost touch them. I was awed at their loveliness, their quick flight, their hissings and chirpings, the yellow spot on the back revealed in flight, etc. Sense of total kinship with them as if they and I were of the same nature, and as if that nature were nothing but love. And what else but love keeps us all together in being? — Dancing in Waters of Life: The Journals of Thomas Merton (vol V)
“I don’t think the moral life of a social activist is a separate matter; I think we are responsible for how we behave with each other—(when) making a protest, taking a political stand; and if we exploit each other personally and keep holding our placards . . . then we’ve become hypocrites. I’m afraid I was in that kind of trouble when I was young.”—Dorothy Day
I sat on an old chair under the skinny cedars, with my feet in the brown, frosty grass, and reflected on the errors of my monastic life. They are many and I am in the midst of them. I have never seen so many mistakes and illusions. It should be enough for me that God loves me. For His love is greater than anything else. It is the beginning and end of all. By it and for it all things were created. Yet, outside His love, I am tempted to erect a cold house of my own devising—a house that is small enough to contain my own self, and that is easier to understand than His incomprehensible love and His providence. November 7, 1952 — A Search for Solitude: Pursuing the Monk’s True Life—The Journals of Thomas Merton, vol 3
There are some times when a passage from his journals simply speaks to my soul. Yes, it is tempting to build that house away from everything and everyone… at about that time, God’s love washes over me and invites me to lose myself and my ego… only to be wrapped in God’s loving grace and presence. To be still and know…
“No matter how another person treats us, how difficult a situation might be, or which of our personal needs we feel wasn’t met, we actually have the power to transform our own state of mind from resentment to peace and contentment.”—Anyen Rinpoche
“Gratitude is a practice that can begin with the smallest acknowledgment and be expanded out to every facet of our existence.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD,Earth, Our Original Monastery: Cultivating Wonder and Gratitude through Intimacy with Nature
How might gratitude help you to cultivate a healthy asceticism and a rejection of consumerism?
“World peace through nonviolent means is neither absurd nor unattainable. All other methods have failed. Thus we must begin anew. Nonviolence is a good starting point.”—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
A powerful reflection from my seminary classmate, colleague in ministry, and friend Shirley ❤️
Grief catches us unaware. A sudden and completely unexpected loss in my extended family left us all reeling. Grief’s expression comes in waves of sadness, the inability to sing a song, misplaced resentment. There is an emotional roller coaster which spins me on a ride I never intended to get on….
Read more at Grief Catches Unaware
Politics vital—even for monks. But in this, due place and with right measure. To live in a monastery as if the world had stopped turning in 1905—a fatal illusion. November 12, 1957 in A Search for Solitude: Pursuing the Monk’s True Self (Journals of Thomas Merton, vol 3)
With this reflection, Merton shares a profound insight that goes far beyond the monastery. As a retired USAF Chaplain, and now pastor, this speaks to my heart. His words are a challenge to me, and in turn, to you dear reader. All too often christians are so focused on the individual salvation experience/relationship with God that they miss the call to be present to the world in the midst of the world’s messiness.
The church can be so caught up in survival of the “old ways” that it fails to hear the call of renewal and a new way of being that Spirit offers it. As one blogger said, stop mourning the church of the past and move into the future. These words challenge the “good old ways and days” to the core. However this challenge must be heeded if we are to be an effective witness today and in the future. To do otherwise, is in the words of Thomas Merton, is a fatal illusion.
“Toni Morrison said, ‘The function of freedom is to free someone else,’ and if you are no longer wracked or in bondage to a person or a way of life, tell your story. Risk freeing someone else. Not everyone will be glad you did. Members of your family and other critics may wish you had kept your secrets. Oh well, what are you going to do?”—Anne Lamott
Verse of the day
A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but an accurate weight is [God’s] delight.
– Proverbs 11:1
Voice of the day
The denunciation of injustice implies the rejection of the use of Christianity to legitimize the established order.
– Gustavo Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation (1971)
Prayer of the day May we never use the gift you so freely gave us to reinforce oppressive systems that harm others.
