Action and contemplation…
Action is the stream, and contemplation is the spring.
–Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
The purpose of our lives…
The purpose of our lives is to find the purpose of our lives.
–Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
No one is so wrong…
No one is so wrong as the man who knows all the answers.
–Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
Lift up the heart…
Following the greeting, “The Lord be with you,” which you know so well, you heard the words, “Lift up your heart.” Now the whole life of true Christians is a matter of lifting up the heart. To lift up the heart is a duty of Christians who are such in very fact and not in name alone. To lift up the heart — what does this mean? It means that you must trust in God, not in yourself since God is so superior to you. When you trust in yourself, your heart stays fettered to the Earth, not fixed on God. So when you hear the priest say, “Lift up your heart,” you respond, “We have lifted it up to the Lord.” See to it, then, that your response rings true,
–Saint Augustine (354-430)
Reparation for our past faults and sins
Trials and tribulations offer us a chance to make reparation for our past faults and sins. On such occasions the Lord comes to us like a physician to heal the wounds left by our sins. Tribulation is the divine medicine.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)
Empty that which is to be filled…
Empty that which is to be filled. Consider that God wants to fill you up with honey. But if you are already full of vinegar, where will you put the honey? What was in the vessel must be emptied out, the vessel itself must be washed out and made clean and scoured, hard work though it may be, so that it may be made for something else, whatever it may be.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)
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