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Thomas Merton

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Famous Thomas Merton Quotes

“Teach me to take all grace / And spring it into blades of act, / Grow spears and sheaves of charity, / While each new instant, (new eternity) / Flowering with clean and individual circumstance, / Speaks me the whisper of [God's] consecrating Spirit. / Then will obedience bring forth new Incarnations / Shining to God with the features of [the Lord's] Christ.”

SpiritIndividualSpeakGrowsChristLordTeachGraceCircumstancesSpringEternityShiningCleanCharityObedienceFeaturesInstantBladesIncarnationSpearsFlowering
Author:Thomas Merton
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“When I am liberated by silence, when I am no longer involved in the measurement of life, but in the living of it, I can discover a form of prayer in which there is effectively no distraction. My whole life becomes a prayer. My whole silence is full of prayer. The world of silence in which I am immersed contributes to my prayer.”

WorldI CanWholeFormPrayerSilenceInvolvedWhole LifeDistractionSilence IsMeasurementLiberated
Book:Thoughts In Solitude
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“The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves.”

Love IsRelationshipReflectionRelationSelf DiscoveryUnconditional LoveOur RelationshipOur LoveTwistsUnconditionalReflectingSelf ReflectionLove RelationshipThose We LoveHealthy RelationshipHappy RelationshipLove And RelationshipDiscovering Your True SelfRelationships And LifeLove UnconditionallyPerfect RelationshipDeveloping RelationshipsLosing OurselvesBeginning Of Relationship
Book:No Man Is an Island
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“The whole purpose of spiritual direction is to penetrate beneath the surface of a man's life, to get behind the façade of conventional gestures and attitudes which he presents to the world, and to bring out his inner spiritual freedom, his inmost truth, which is what we call the likeness of Christ in his soul.”

MenWorldSoulWholeSpiritualPurposeChristBehindsAttitudeSurfaceGesturesConventionalPenetrateSpiritual DirectionBeneath The SurfaceSpiritual Freedom
Book:Spiritual Direction and Meditation
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“What does it mean to know and experience my own “nothingness?” It is not enough to turn away in disgust from my illusions and faults and mistakes, to separate myself from them as if they were not, and as if I were someone other than myself. This kind of self-annihilati on is only a worse illusion, it is a pretended humility which, by saying “I am nothing” I mean in effect “I wish I were not what I am.”

IfsKnowsKindMeanDoeSelfEnoughTurnsWishMy OwnMistakeEffectsHumilityIllusionFaultsDisgustingNothingness
Book:Thoughts In Solitude
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“The thing about Zen is that it pushes contradictions to their ultimate limit where one has to choose between madness and innocence. And Zen. suggests that we may be driving toward one or the other on a cosmic scale. Driving toward them because, one way or the other, as madmen or innocents, we are already there. It might be good to open our eyes and see.”

WayMayMightEyeLimitsUltimateMadnessBe GoodDrivingScalesOne WayInnocenceContradictionCosmicMadmen
Author:Thomas Merton
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“The reality that is present to us and in us: call it being...Silence. And the simple fact that by being attentive, by learning to listen (or recovering the natural capacity to listen) we can find ourself engulfed in such happiness that it cannot be explained: the happiness of being at one with everything in that hidden ground of Love for which there can be no explanations.... May we all grow in grace and peace, and not neglect the silence that is printed in the center of our being. It will not fail us.”

MayFactsRealityGrowsNaturalSimpleSilenceGraceFailingCapacityExplanationNeglectPrintedRecovering
Author:Thomas Merton
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“We too often forget that faith is a matter of questioning and struggle before it becomes one of certitude and peace. You have to doubt and reject everything else in order to believe firmly in Christ, and after you have begun to believe, your faith itself must be tested and purified. Christianity is not merely a set of forgone conclusions. Faith tends to be defeated by the burning presence of God in mystery, and seeks refuge from him, flying to comfortable social forms and safe convictions in which purification is no longer an inner battle but a matter of outward gesture.”

BelieveMatterFormFaithOrderSocialChristForgetChristianityStruggleDoubtMysteryBattleSafeComfortableConvictionFlyingConclusionBurningRejectsGesturesQuestioningRefugeDefeatedTestedPresence Of GodPurificationCertitude
Author:Thomas Merton
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“The importance of detachment from things, the importance of poverty, is that we are supposed to be free from things that we might prefer to people. Wherever things have become more important than people, we are in trouble. That is the crux of the whole matter.”

PeopleImportantMatterWholeMightSpiritualityPovertyTroubleImportanceSupposed To BeDetachmentCrux
Book:Thomas Merton in Alaska: Prelude to the Asian Journal : the Alaskan Conferences, Journals, and Letters
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“I am against war, against violence, against violent revolution, for peaceful settlement of differences, for nonviolent but nevertheless radical changes. Change is needed, and violence will not really change anything: at most it will only transfer power from one set of bull-headed authorities to another.”

WarPeaceDifferencesViolenceRevolutionNeededAuthorityViolentPeacefulRadicalNeverthelessBullsTransfersSettlementRadical ChangeAgainst WarAgainst ViolenceViolent Revolution
Author:Thomas Merton
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