We must make the choices that enable us to fulfill the deepest capacities of our real selves. Thomas Merton More Quotes by Thomas Merton More Quotes From Thomas Merton Zen insight is not our awareness, but Being's awareness of itself in us. Thomas Merton insight awareness If we are to love sincerely, and with simplicity, we must first of all overcome the fear of not being loved. Thomas Merton simplicity overcoming firsts What I wear is pants. What I do is live. How I pray is breathe. Thomas Merton breathe pants praying There is in all visible things an invisible fecundity, a dimmed light, a meek namelessness, a hidden wholeness. Thomas Merton wholeness visible inspirational Faith is the door to the full inner life of the Church, a life which includes not only access to an authoritative teaching but above all to a deep personal experience which is at once unique and yet shared by the whole Body of Christ, in the Spirit of Christ. Thomas Merton unique teaching doors Despair is the absolute extreme of self-love. It is reached when a person deliberately turns his back on all help from anyone else in order to taste the rotten luxury of knowing himself to be lost Thomas Merton wisdom self order The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly Thomas Merton unconditional-love reflection relationship The silence of the forest is my bride and the sweet dark warmth of the whole world is my love, and out of the heart of that dark warmth comes the secret that is heard only in silence, but it is the root of all the secrets that are whispered by all the lovers in their beds all over the world. Thomas Merton dark heart sweet How do you expect to arrive at the end of your own journey if you take the road to another man's city? Thomas Merton cities journey men Many poets are not poets for the same reason that many religious men are not saints: they never succeed in being themselves. They never get around to being the particular poet or the particular monk they are intended to be by God. They never become the man or the artist who is called for by all the circumstances of their individual lives. They waste their years in vain efforts to be some other poet, some other saint...They wear out their minds and bodies in a hopeless endeavor to have somebody else's experiences or write somebody else's poems. Thomas Merton artist religious writing Keeping a journal has taught me that there is not so much new in your life as you sometimes think. When you re-read your journal you find out that your latest discovery is something you already found out five years ago. Still, it is true that one penetrates deeper and deeper into the same ideas and the same experiences. Thomas Merton discovery years thinking Love is the door to eternity. Thomas Merton doors love-is love There is only one problem on which all my existence, my peace, my happiness depend: to discover myself in discovering God. If I find Him I will find myself and if I find my true self I will find Him. Thomas Merton existence problem self Just remaining quietly in the presence of God, listening to Him, being attentive to Him, requires a lot of courage and know-how. Thomas Merton courage listening quiet Do not be one of those who, rather than risk failure, never attempts anything. Thomas Merton risk I was not sure where I was going, and I could not see what I would do when I got [there]. But you saw further and clearer than I, and you opened the seas before my ship, whose track led me across the waters to a place I had never dreamed of, and which you were even then preparing to be my rescue and my shelter and my home. Thomas Merton track sea home We become contemplatives when God discovers Himself in us. Thomas Merton meditation Those who think they 'know' from the beginning will never in fact Thomas Merton knows facts thinking What do you want to want to be, anyway?" "I don't know; I guess what I want to be is a good Catholic." "What you should say"--he told me--"what you should say is that you want to be a saint. Thomas Merton catholic saint want The only influence that can really upset the injustice and iniquity of men is the power that breathes in the Christian tradition, renewing our participation in the Life that is the Light of men. Thomas Merton light christian men
