Thomas Merton says, “In a world of noise, confusion, and conflict, it is necessary that there be places of inner silence and peace, not the peace of mere relaxation but the peace of inner clarity and love.” These places of inner silence and peace can have so many personal meanings. I came across this quote…
Tag: thomas merton
On Compunction
In the language of medieval asceticism, the clear-sighted recognition and mature acceptance of our own limitation is called “compunction.” Compunction is a special grace, an insight into our own depths which, in one glance, sees through our illusions about ourselves, sweeps aside our self-deceptions and daydreams, and show us ourselves exactly as we are. But…
The Problem With How We Treat Bipolar Disorder – NYTimes.com
The Problem With How We Treat Bipolar Disorder – NYTimes.com After the depression is suffered and endured, one is never the same. After each episode, I come out losing a sense of my many selves. And that is a good thing. It is a good thing because I am stripped down to the one true…
The Voice of God is Heard in Paradise
The Voice of God is heard in Paradise: “What was vile has become precious. What is now precious was never vile. I have always known the vile as precious: for what is vile I know not at all. “What was cruel has become merciful. What is now merciful was never cruel. I have always overshadowed…
The Beautiful Isolation
“The most remarkable recent epidemiologic finding relates to migrants: Some fall ill with schizophrenia not only at higher rates than the compatriots they leave behind, but at higher rates than the natives of the countries to which they have come.” – excerpt from the journal “Beyond the Brain” by Tanya Marie Luhrmann (For the entire…
Nunc Coepi
“For two years I have been a hermit and have not appreciated the fact, or lived as one. Nunc coepi. Father Barnabas Mary, the Passionist in Chicago, wrote to me about Father Charbel who lived as a hermit in Syria- he was a Maronite. Everyone forgot about him. He died. Fifty years later his body was…
Thomas Merton
“After my first Mass I understood perfectly and for the first time in my life that nothing else in the world is important except to love God and to serve Him with simplicity and joy. I saw most clearly that it is useless and illusory to look for some spectacular and extraordinary way of serving…
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