Thomas Merton

Our idea of God tells us more about ourselves than about Him.

Every moment and every event of every man's life on earth plants something in his soul.

The poet enters into himself in order to create. The contemplative enters into God in order to be created.

What about the men who run about the countryside painting signs that say “Jesus saves“ and “Prepare to meet God!“ Have you ever seen one of them? I have not, but I often try to imagine them, and I wonder what goes on in their minds.

Reason is in fact the path to faith, and faith takes over when reason can say no more.

The more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you, in proportion to your fear of being hurt. The one who does most to avoid suffering is, in the end, the one who suffers most.

There were only a few shepherds at the first Bethlehem. The ox and the ass understood more of the first Christmas than the high priests in Jerusalem. And it is the same today.

Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone - we find it with another.

That which is oldest is most young and most new. There is nothing so ancient and so dead as human novelty.

Love has overcome. Love is victorious. Amen.

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy.

Christ always seeks the straw of the most desolate cribs to make his Bethlehem.

Ultimately the only way that I can be myself is to become identified with him in whom is hidden the reason and fulfillment of my existence

The secret of my identity is hidden in the love and mercy of God.

A word will never be able to comprehend the voice that utters it.

The only one who can teach me to find God is God, himself, alone.

The least of the work of learning is done in the classroom.

The tighter you squeeze, the less you have.

@piu_andante New Seeds of Contemplation. amazon.com/New-Seeds-Cont…

The little yellow flowers that nobody notices on the edge of that road are saints looking up into the face of God.