Better than hoping for anything from the Lord, besides His love, let us place all our hope in His love itself. This hope is as sure as God Himself. It can never be confounded.
— Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island, Sentences on Hope
It doesn’t matter what we do,
you and I,
as long as we are together.No need for lavish blessings
or miraculous signs;
just You hovering near me will do.dw
Copyright © 2019, becomingflame.com
If I believe that He can love me, I must also believe that I can love Him. If I do not believe I can love Him, then I do not believe Him Who gave us the first commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and thy whole mind and all thy strength, and thy neighbor as thyself.”
— Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island, Sentences on Hope
The system of church doctrine I learned and lived under for too long told me I was incapable of loving God. I’m beginning to believe, instead, that those who preach such doctrines are the ones incapable of loving God or of admitting that many people, in fact, do. Their own systematic theology keeps them from the experience they need and long for. My prayer: Lord, give us all the simple love and courage of Mary, sister of Martha, who chose “the good portion” – sitting at your feet, loving you with all her heart.
dw
Copyright © 2019, becomingflame.com
So the soul that hopes in God already belongs to Him, and to belong to Him is the same as to possess Him, since He gives Himself completely to those who give themselves to Him.
— Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island, Sentences on Hope
We began this series on Hope with Thomas Merton telling us that hope takes everything away from us so that, in the end, we may possess everything. Here he gives us the answer to that riddle:
Hope’s mission is to lead us to the only sure hope, that the God Jesus called ‘Father’ is our God, we are his people, and he takes joy in giving us all that can truly be called Life. Any hope less than this is a distraction, a diminishing of this sure hope, the anchor of our souls.
dw
Copyright © 2018, becomingflame.com
Without hope, our faith gives us only an acquaintance with God. Without love and hope, faith only knows Him as a stranger. For hope casts us into the arms of His mercy and of His providence. If we hope in Him, we will not only come to know that He is merciful but we will experience His mercy in our own lives.
— Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island, Sentences on Hope
Faith without hope
is a dry throat
swallowing hard
to push down the panic
“What if I am wrong?”Unless it is
seething hatred
at a world
that has no good news.Mere acquaintance with God is terrifying.
dw
Copyright © 2019, becomingflame.com
p.s.
This post from last year is a prayer I have prayed over the years, asking the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to help me be more than an acquaintance.
Hope empties our hands in order that we may work with them.
— Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island, Sentences on Hope
God in heaven, fill my heart to empty my hands for you and yours.
dw
p.s. Here are some related posts:
So many coats – Mary Oliver
Frederick Buechner – A million things
becoming flame 