All Christian life is meant to be at the same time profoundly contemplative and rich in active work. Thomas Merton in Love and Living, p. 177 (Kindle edition)
In the midst of the divisiveness, fear, and hate-mongering that I see today, these words from the great mystic and theologian Howard Thurman ring true. May we never lose sight of this lesson in faith from Thurman.
The final thing that my faith teaches me is that God is love. Not only that He is; not only that he is near; but that he is love. Fully do I realize how difficult this is. There is so much anguish in life, so much misery unmerited, so much pain, so much downright reflective hell everywhere that it sometimes seems to me that it is an illusion to say that God is love. When one comes into close grips with the perversity of personalities, with studied evil—it might be forgiven one who cries aloud to the Power over Life—human life is stain—blot it out! I know all that. I know that society stretches out like a gaping sore that refuses to be healed. I know that life is often heartless, hard as pig iron. And yet, in the midst of all this I affirm my faith that God is love—whatever else He might be. (Barren or Fruitful?—A sermon from 1932 in the book 40-Day Journey with Howard Thurman, p.40)
Gratitude is the most fruitful way of deepening your consciousness that you are not an “accident,” but a divine choice. It is important to realize how often we have had chances to be grateful and have not used them. When someone is kind to us, when an event turns out well, when a problem is solved, a relationship restored, a wound haealed, there are very concrete reasons to offer thanks: be it with words, with flowers, with a letter, a card, a phone call, or just a gesture of affection. . . . Every time we decide to be grateful it will be easier to see new things to be grateful for. Gratitude begets gratitude, just as love begets love.
But we should be helping one another—let’s put it in simpler words—to love. We help one another to love more, and you help people to love, not by saying “love,” but by loving. That’s the justification of our life: if there is love, it’s justified, and it should not be just a little in-growing love. It should be a love that reaches out to everybody.—Thomas Merton in California: The Redwood Conferences & Letters, (p. 52)
These words of wisdom that Merton offered during his conference talk in California were directed to the members of a Cistercian women’s community in Northern California. However, as with so much of his work, these words must be a part of the life and the work of those who follow Christ in this fractured and fear-filled world where the “church” has too often become the antithesis of the way of Jesus.
I think it is going to be of great importance, in the next few months and years, if Americans can regain their healthy respect for reason, for the light of intellect, and get rid of this shallow contempt for “eggheads.” They must learn to respect thought and stop idolizing psychopathic goofs. God knows, this is going to take a miracle. There are plenty of wise and sane men in the country, and they are able to be articulate. They can do a tremendous amount. — Thomas Merton in a letter to Ethel Kennedy (The Cold War Letters, p. 28)
Talk about words that we should listen to and learn from today in this world of lies, deception, and deceit…
You have been wounded in many ways. The more you open yourself to being healed, the more you will discover how deep your wounds are…. The great challenge is living your wounds through instead of thinking them through. It is better to cry than to worry, better to feel your wounds deeply than to understand them, better to let them enter into your silence than to talk about them. The choice you face constantly is whether you are taking your hurts to your head or to your heart. In your head you can analyze them, find their causes and consequences, and coin words to speak and write about them. But no final healing is likely to come from that source. You need to let your wounds go down to your heart. Then you can live through them and discover that they will not destroy you. Your heart is greater than your wounds.
Verse of the day
He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.
– Revelation 21:4
Voice of the day
The ocean of suffering is immense, but if you turn around, you can see the land.
– Thich Nhat Hanh, “The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching” (1998)
Prayer of the day
Lord, help us to see the land of hope beyond our suffering, trusting that you will wipe every tear from our eyes.
Verse of the day
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
– Matthew 5:9
Voice of the day
To become a real peacemaker, is to do justice unto the world, is to wield power with responsibility.
– Hanan Ashrawi
Prayer of the day
O God, help us listen to the cries of the wounded and seek true peace and justice. Give us the strength to be instruments of healing and compassion, remembering those who suffer and working toward a future where every life is valued.
“May you never be the reason why someone who loved to sing, doesn’t anymore. Or why someone who dresses uniquely now wears plain clothing. Or someone who always spoke so excitedly about their dreams is now silent about them. May you never be the reason someone gave up on a part of themselves because you were demotivating, non-appreciative, hypercritical, or even worse, sarcastic, about it.”—Sharouk Mostafa Ibrahim
Do not be too quick to condemn the man (or woman) who no longer believes in God: for it is perhaps your own coldness and avarice and mediocrity and materialism and selfishness that have chilled (their) faith. — Thomas Merton (New Seeds of Contemplation, p. 177)
I firmly believe that with the rise of Christian nationalism and division in this country the church as an institution and individuals who say that they are Christians need to pause and consider what their message is and whether or not it is who and what Christ has called us to be.
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