Exhortation

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heart, metanoia, peaceful world, september 11, The Hidden Ground of Love, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton

As I remember the shocking attack on our country that was perpetrated on 9/11/2001, I turn to Thomas Merton for a word and find it immediately. It is not soothing but calls me to step up to responsibility. And you?

“The real job is to lay the groundwork for a deep change of heart on the part of the whole nation so that one day it can really go through the metanoia we need for a peaceful world.” (The Hidden Ground of Love, p. 92)

A Tiny Step Forward

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change of heart, Doug Jones, election, metanoia, peaceful world, The Hidden Ground of Love, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton

I am relieved this morning at the news that Doug Jones has prevailed in the special election over Roy Moore in Alabama. It is not about Republican and Democrat for me but about the persons themselves and their beliefs. Although Moore continues to contest the results I feel confident that the outcome will show a better result for the country.

After the sense of relief in that message, I turned to Thomas Merton who, over 50 years ago said the following in the book The Hidden Ground of Love:

The real job is to lay the groundwork for a deep change of heart on the part of the whole nation so that one day it can really go through the metanoia* we need for a peaceful world. (* “a transformative change of heart”)

May it be so in our time!

 

 

 

 

 

Old Thoughts for a New Time

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apolitical, Book of Hours, Cold War, human, monk, Peace, politics, rational thinking, restraint, serious discourse, The Hidden Ground of Love, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton

This morning I read the Wednesday “Day” section of Thomas Merton’s Book of Hours (since it’s rather too late for the “Dawn” thoughts). I was struck by the relevance of what seemed so appropriate to our present situation. Merton was writing letters in the 1960s that were eventually gathered and published in a book entitled The Hidden Ground of Love. He had been ordered by his superiors to cease publishing anything on war and peace and so privately circulated a series of mimeographed “Cold War Letters,” many of which appear in the above-mentioned text. It’s clear that monks were supposed to be more concerned with peace than with the disconcerting issues that block the path to that peace. Merton was not willing to be silenced because his words would disturb the image of “the holy monk.”

It seems over the last several months that we are reverting to the ’60s, where serious discourse and demonstrations were the order of the day. What is missing, however, from such actions in many cases – not to say it always existed in Merton’s day either – is measured, rational thinking beforehand and restraint in the duration of the events. Perhaps Merton has something worthy to say to us, 49 years after his death.

“It seems to me that the basic problem is not political, it is apolitical and human. One of the most important things to do is to keep cutting deliberately through political lines and barriers and emphasizing the fact that these are largely fabrications and that there is another dimension, a genuine reality, totally opposed to the fictions of politics: the human dimension which politics pretend to arrogate entirely to themselves. This is the necessary first step along the long way toward the perhaps impossible task of purifying, humanizing and somehow illuminating politics themselves. Is this possible? At least we must try to hope in that, otherwise all is over. But politics as they now stand are hopeless.

Hence the desirability of a manifestly non-political witness, non-aligned, non-labeled, fighting for the reality of [man] and [his] rights and needs in the nuclear world in some measure against all the alignments.”

Home Again

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compassion, peaceable kingdom, receptivity, Thanksgiving, The Hidden Ground of Love, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton, tolerance, wisdom

Even though we in the United States are gearing up today and tomorrow for Thanksgiving, the most traveled holiday in our country, I feel a sense of grounding this morning as I sit in my chair, in my own room, looking out at the view that is so familiar to me as I await the dawn. I am settling in to “home” after an inexplicable season (10 days!) of what seems like time out of time spent in seeking wisdom with a miraculous “horde” of 240 people, an event that gave a glimpse of what could be seen as “the peaceable kingdom.” As I breathe into this day with its familiar round of activities, I am heartened by a word from Thomas Merton that calms my soul while it fuels my intention. He says the following:

I think what I need to learn is an almost infinite tolerance and compassion because negative thought gets nowhere. I am beginning to think that in our time we will correct almost nothing, and get almost nowhere: but if we can just prepare a compassionate and receptive soil for the future, we will have done a great work. I feel at least that this is the turn my own life ought to take. (The Hidden Ground of Love, 20)