In order to find God in ourselves, we must stop looking at ourselves, stop checking and verifying ourselves in the mirror of our own futility, and be content to be in Him and to do whatever He wills, according to our limitations, judging our acts not in the light of our own illusions, but in the light of His reality which is all around us in the things and people we live with.
Thomas Merton
No Man is an Island
This reminds me of the prayer of St. Francis:
“It is by self-forgetting that we find.
“It is by dying that we awaken to eternal life.”
Thomas Merton, although American through and through, seems to come to us from another time. He seems more like a desert monk than a modern person.
I’ve read a lot of Merton, but last night I rented a biography of him on Netflix. I highly recommend it. He was quite controversial at times and helped open up a dialogue between eastern religions and the West back in the 1960s.
“Stop Looking at Ourselves: this morning I set out to complete some household chores–before saying my prayers (I got up late) worrying about “why didn’t I do this first,pray. Then I read the words of Fr. Lewis and realized it only matters that I was thinking about God and being with Him. Thanks for this page.
Pax
Ed