Category: Merton

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Oh Woe Is Me?

“We will never get anywhere unless we can accept the fact that politics is an inextricable tangle of good and evil motives in which, perhaps, the evil predominate but where one must continue to hope doggedly in what little good can still be found”.

Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation, Pg. 116

 

Fears-are-storiesLife is full of perceived good and evil. Every day we make choices in how we live our lives. We can get caught up in our emotions about all the things that are happening in the world and try to effect change in a haphazard way or worse yet, allow ourselves become emotional basket cases, whereby we become useless to ourselves and those we thought we might be able to help.

Instead of this self-destructive route, we could take pause, first to see how these things we think have so affected us to make us this way by looking at the bigger picture, and ask, “How has my life really changed since that thing happened?” “Can I see this as a lesson in some way that will make me stronger, or do I just give in to fear, and allow this thing to define me.”

Remember, things have no power, except the power we give them of ourselves.

-rev jim starke

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What is Salvation?

993150_30225139“It is not only our hatred of others that is dangerous but also and above all our hatred of ourselves: particularly that hatred of ourselves which is too deep and too powerful to be consciously faced. For it is this which makes us see our own evil in others and unable to see it in ourselves.”
-New Seeds of Contemplation, Thomas Merton

Long ago, I used to prayer to God to deliver me from evil. I never knew then that the deliverance was from my own self. As I move into union with my higher self, I hold the memory who I thought I was to keep centered on my journey to wholeness.

~jtstarke
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Who were you intended to be?

merton-heroic-humilityWhat mask do you wear in order to keep people from knowing who you truly are?

Do you even know?

What kind of inquiry have you done to even find out who you are?

We are all meant to be here for a purpose. We are not just here to overpopulate the planet.

Think about it. Beyond all the chaos, crime, hunger, and strife, each of us was put here to serve mankind and the universe in some way. Each one of us is unique and precious. On this journey we can life, each of us adds value to life.

If we can find that, true happiness is ours.

~jtstarke

#aworldthatworks
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I trust the process.

rock-balancing“We will never get anywhere unless we can accept the fact that politics is an inextricable tangle of good and evil motives in which, perhaps, the evil predominate but where one must continue to hope doggedly in what little good can still be found”.
-New Seeds of Contemplation, Thomas Merton

Richard Rohr also talks about the complete person being beyond the “broken world” and, in a broader dialog, that without spirituality we are incomplete, not a whole person. This is a similar to what Thomas Merton speaks to in his writings about the whole person being a balance between the ego-driven human self and the spiritual, higher self.  Then we can see beyond the politics and we can go from “Who has the power here?” to, “How can I serve here?” First, we have to find ourselves and then we can be happy with whatever the world throws at us while asking “how can I help?”

~jtstarke

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What is the contemplative experience?

merton-to be“WE do not see God in contemplation—we know Him by love: for He is pure Love and when we taste the experience of loving God for His own sake alone, we know by experience Who and what He is.”  ~Thomas Merton, “New Seeds of Contemplation,” pg. 268

~rev jim
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God has a sense of humor.

Thomas Merton says that “we know Him (God) in so far as we are known by Him.”

Pool Table Billiard BallsI experienced this connection with Spirit on occasion in my thirties in a humorous way. God apparently enjoys an occasional game of pool. The first time I experienced this connection, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it, but it affected me deeply. The game started as it usually does, with the break. We play that we must call all our banks and combinations of balls used on the table to sink our intended shots. After the break, which is always a “smash and bash” for me, just spreading out the balls across the table, my opponent took his turn and sank four balls.

My next shot was a bank shot the full length of the table bringing the cues back to sink a ball in the corner pocket. As I viewed the shot and the sweet spot, my tinnitus disappeared, and my sight became truly blindered to blot out everything but the shot. As I pulled back on the stick to connect with the ball,I actually felt some restraint in my follow through of the shot limiting more than I would the power with which I connected with the cue ball. The shot was perfect and the leave for the subsequent shot was also spot on. This continued as I mouthed the calling of my shots right up to the 8 ball. As I ran the table, I felt a flush in my face. My opponent was silent up to that point, a bit dumbfounded, I suppose, as was I in retrospect. When he realized “I” was about to run the table, he came over and gave me a big Pat on the back of congratulations. Everything returned to normal, and I missed the 8 ball shot.

He then ran the rest of the table, which was more usual, and I just sat there wondering what had just happened. It happened a few more times over the next few years, and I really enjoyed being the observer of the pool game “I” was playing. I have experienced things like this in different ways during my life, but I always enjoyed the experience of God playing pool through me.

Today, much in the same way as my pool experience, I experience the same “presence” when I am in prayer. It is truly a humbling experience.