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The only right way: to love and serve the man of the modern world, but not simply to succumb, with him, to all his illusions about the world.

Thomas Merton

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Thomas Merton
Age: 53 †
Born: 1915
Born: January 15
Died: 1968
Died: December 10
Autobiographer
Catholic Priest
Essayist
Journalist
Peace Activist
Poet
Theologian
Trappist Cistercian Monk
Writer
Thomas Feverel Merton
Father Louis
Modern
Right
Way
Men
Succumb
Love
Illusions
World
Serve
Illusion
Simply

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The things I thought were so important -- because of the effort I put into them -- have turned out to be of small value. And the things I never thought about, the things I was never able to either to measure or to expect, were the things that mattered.
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To be grateful is to recognize the love of God in everything.
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We do not exist for ourselves.
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A daydream is an evasion.
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Christ is born to us today, in order that he may appear to the whole world through us.
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If there is no silence beyond and within the many words of doctrine, there is no religion, only a religious ideology. For religion goes beyond words and actions, and attains to the ultimate Truth only in silence and Love.
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A gentle sense of humor will be alert to detect anything that savors of a pious 'act' on the part of the penitent.
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Meditation is one of the ways in which the spiritual man keeps himself awake.
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It is the will of God that we live not only as rational beings, but as new men regenerated by the Holy Spirit in Christ. It is His will that we reach out for our inheritance, that we answer His call to be His sons. We are born men without our consent, but the consent to be sons of God has to be elicited by our own free will.
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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.
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Every breath we draw is a gift of God's love every moment of existence is a grace.
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Music and art and poetry attune the soul to God.
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Are they moved by a sense of human need for silence, for reflection, for inner seeking? So they want to get away from the noise and tension of modern life, at least for a little while, in order to relax their minds and wills and seek a blessed healing sense of inner unity, reconciliation, integration?
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For if I am to love truly and freely, I must be able to give something that is truly my own to another. If my heart does not first belong to me, how can I give it to another?
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Love is free it does not depend on the desirability of its object, but loves for love's sake.
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Whose silence are you?
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Self-conquest is really self-surrender. Yet before we can surrender ourselves we must become ourselves. For no one can give up what he does not possess.
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For perfect hope is achieved on the brink of despair, when instead of falling over the edge, we find ourselves walking on air.
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While some men see ordinary happenings, others see divine light and guidance.
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It is in deep solitude and silence that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brother and sister.
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