The beginning of love…
The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.
–Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
In prayer we discover…
In prayer we discover what we already have. You start from where you are and you deepen what you already have, and you realize you are already there. We have everything but we don’t know it and don’t experience it. Everything has been given us in Christ. All we need is to experience what we already possess.
–Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
The mystery of Christ…
As a magnifying glass concentrates the rays of the sun into a little burning knot of heat that can set fire to a dry leaf or a piece of paper, so the mystery of Christ in the Gospel concentrates the rays of God’s light and fire to a point that sets fire to the spirit of man. … Through the glass of His Incarnation He concentrates the rays of His Divine Truth and Love upon us so that we feel the burn, and all mystical experience is communicated to men through the Man Christ.
–Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
Two serious evils…
In order that what we have said may be the more clearly and fully understood, it will be well to set down here and state how these desires are the cause of two serious evils in the soul: the one is that they deprive it of the Spirit of God, and the other is that the soul wherein they dwell is wearied, tormented, darkened, defiled and weakened
–Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591)
No spiritual substance…
Be hostile to admitting into your soul things that of themselves have no spiritual substance, lest they make you lose your liking for devotion and recollection.
–Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591)
Dryness and suffering…
God values in you the inclination to dryness and suffering for love of him more than all the consolations, spiritual visions, and meditations you could possibly have.
–Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591)
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