Discovering the contemplative life is a new self-discovery. One might say it is the flowering of a deeper identity on an entirely different plane from a mere psychological discovery, a paradoxical new identity that is found only in loss of self. To find one’s self by losing one’s self: that is part of ‘contemplation.’ Remember the Gospel, ‘He who would save his life must lose it’? (Matthew 16:25)
Thomas Merton
Seeds
