We are so obsessed with doing that we have no time and no imagination left for being. As a result, men are valued not for what they are but for what they do or what they have – for their usefulness.
THOMAS MERTONFor perfect hope is achieved on the brink of despair, when instead of falling over the edge, we find ourselves walking on air.
More Thomas Merton Quotes
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Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone – we find it with another.
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Let us come alive to the splendor that is all around us and see the beauty in ordinary things.
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What do I mean by loving ourselves properly? I mean first of all, desiring to live, accepting life as a very great gift and a great good, not because of what it gives us, but because of what it enables us to give to others.
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Prayer is not so much a way to find God as a way of resting in him who loves us, who is near to us.
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You are made in the image of what you desire.
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The purpose of our lives is to find the purpose of our lives.
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But if you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I think I am living for.
THOMAS MERTON -
How can I be sincere if I am constantly changing my mind to conform with the shadow of what I think others expect of me?
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Not all of us are called to be hermits, but all of us need enough silence and solitude in our lives to enable the deeper voice of our own self to be heard at least occasionally.
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For each one of us, there is only one thing necessary: to fulfill our own destiny, according to God’s will, to be what God wants us to be.
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Compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things.
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Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy.
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Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false Self. We are not very good at recognizing illusions, least of all the ones we cherish about ourselves.
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Every breath we draw is a gift of God’s love; every moment of existence is a grace.
THOMAS MERTON -
The spiritual life is first of all a life. It is not merely something to be known and studied, it is to be lived.
THOMAS MERTON