Persons are not known by intellect alone, not by principles alone, but only by love. It is when we love the other, the enemy, that we obtain from God the key to an understanding of who he is, and who we are. It is only this realization that can open to us the real nature of our duty, and of right action.
Thomas MertonAsh Wednesday is full of joy...The source of all sorrow is the illusion that of ourselves we are anything but dust.
Thomas MertonThe whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music under my feet.
Thomas MertonHumility sets us free to do what is really good, by showing us our illusions and withdrawing our will from what was only an apparent good.
Thomas MertonDo not depend on the hope of results. You may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results, but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself. You gradually struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people. In the end, it is the reality of personal relationship that saves everything.
Thomas Merton