Tags
God, infinite mercy, love, New Seeds of Contemplation, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton
I wrote yesterday in anticipation of the two sessions of our book study. It was the last of five sessions and did not disappoint. Today I sit in gratitude for the growing number of spiritual seekers who find their way to all kinds of groups that assist in the process of deepening understanding of self and meaningful life. This morning I read something written by Thomas Merton more than half a century ago that could have been said of our two wonderful, diverse groups of people who in their sharing and their silences created community in a way that was beautiful to watch. (You may want to read it aloud a couple of times to catch the flow and beauty of meaning.)
Merton wrote: Love comes out of God and gathers us to God in order to pour itself back into God through all of us and bring us all back to God on the tide of God’s own infinite mercy. So we all become doors and windows through which God shines back into His own house. (New Seeds of Contemplation, p.67)
Here’s a little quote from Thomas Merton’s New Seeds of Contemplation that needs to be breathed out one clause at a time to give us a whole day of reflection. See where it takes you.
Although I know that Sunday is considered the first day of the week, it is Monday that usually calls me to take stock and ready myself for the work that this week will see done or undone when next Sunday rolls around. Today, after two weeks of many full and fruitful days, I am grateful for the opportunity to have this day not only to make a measured plan but also to begin to plod mindfully along, hoping for some level of achievement by the end of the week. I am not naïve enough to think that all will go as planned – that is not the nature of “real life” in my “neck of the woods” – but just making the plan is a good enough start for me right now. Thomas Merton gives me impetus to put my mind and heart into that task this morning with the following reflection.
I return to this reflective task from an extraordinary outpouring of care that included not only family solidarity but also the prayer and compassion of two faith communities – one Roman Catholic and one Presbyterian – who embraced us because of their experience of my cousin, Paul, and his wife, Janice. Celebrating Paul’s earthly existence and his entry into new life in God, I was not surprised by welcome in two Christian denominations; I presumed hospitality at such an event. There was something deeper there, however. It seemed, rather than two, we were experiencing one seamless worship service because of the respect, compassion and real love that was palpable throughout the day.
It happened again this morning! I read the gospel passage that instructs us on how to go about praying so as not to be swayed by the desire for approval. (MT 6:1-6, 16-18) It tells us to go to your inner room, close the door and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. That reminded me of Thomas Merton’s reference to what he calls the point vierge, that space in us that no one (even we ourselves) can access – only God can. I knew the quote originally found in Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander appeared also in Kathleen Deignan’s book Thomas Merton: A Book of Hours, so I pulled the book as I did yesterday with Macrina Wiederkehr. Again I found what I didn’t know I was to read. This time the book jacket flap gave it to me. It wasn’t what I was looking for but it certainly was what answered my need for coherence of thought. Merton was talking about vocation, our identity in God, and among other things, he says this:
