| “I beg you to keep me in this silence so that I may learn from it the word of your peace and the word of your gentleness to the world. And that through me perhaps your word of peace may make itself heard where it has not been possible for anyone to hear it for a long time. ” Thomas Merton |
In the chaos and static of our inner and outer lives – the brewing anger, fear, shame, anguish, sorrow, and the constant push to produce or accomplish – we struggle to meet these deep desires of our hearts. Our perception of reality is obscured and distorted. St John of the Cross used the image of a dirty window to describe the process of spiritual maturing, which includes purification or cleansing. The prophet Malachi called for a good scrub with a steel wool pad of Fuller’s soap and the heat of a refiner’s fire. We recognize that we cannot go on living in the way we have. Something needs to change and part of that is how we see ourselves, each other, and our beliefs about the God and the world. NEW ISSUE OF HOLY GROUND If There Be Any Virtue . . . What clouds your window on the world? What disturbs your serenity? How do you change channels? Three crows a sky-puppy a snatch of Gerald Manley Hopkins’ grandeur might be all it takes Read More |
The Praying Life 