The whole purpose of spiritual direction is to penetrate beneath the surface of a man's life, to get behind the façade of… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The Bible is not primarily a written or printed text to be scrutinized in private, in a scholar's study or a contemplative… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The fact remains that we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful solemnity to the wind, and join in… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
In all His acts God orders all things, whether good or evil, for the good of those who know Him and seek… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the other.... The whole purpose of life is to live… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
If you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
But if you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
That is God's call to us - simply to be people who are content to live close to him and to renew… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The silence of the spheres is the music of a wedding feast. The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life,… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“Let no one hope to find in contemplation an escape from conflict, from anguish or from doubt. On the contrary, the deep, inexpressible certitude… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
If nothing that can be seen can either be God or represent Him to us as He is, then to find God we must… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
It is almost impossible to overestimate the value of true humility and its power in the spiritual life. For the beginning of humility is… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
We are not perfectly free until we live in pure hope. For when our hope is pure, it no longer trusts exclusively in human… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The desire to kill is like the desire to attack another with an ingot of red -hot iron: I have to pick up the… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
To enter into the realm of contemplation one must in a certain sense die: but this death is in fact the entrance to a… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The mission of Christian humility in social life is not merely to edify, but to keep minds open to many alternatives. The rigidity of… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Peace cannot be built on exclusivism, absolutism, and intolerance. But neither can it be built on vague liberal slogans and pious programs gestated in… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Things that are good are good, and if one is responding to that goodness one is in contact with a truth from which one… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The logic of worldly success rests on a fallacy: the strange error that our perfection depends on the thoughts and opinions and applause of… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“The wisdom of the flesh is a judgement that the ordinary ends of our natural appetites are the goods to which the whole of… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
