To find “ourselves” then is to find not only our poor, limited, perplexed souls, but to find the power of God that raised Christ from the dead and “built us together in Him unto a habitation of God in the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22).
— Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island
I cannot discover God in myself and myself in Him unless I have the courage to face myself exactly as I am, with all my limitations, and to accept others as they are, with all their limitations.
— Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island
Do I have the courage to admit, to accept, to own how broken I am?
Will I let myself feel it, not just assent to it?
Though it feel scary as hell and shameful as sin, for the prospect of finding God in there somewhere, loving me and holding me, am I willing to do it?
Am I willing to do it as many times as it takes…for the love of God?
Am I willing to try again if it was too much for me last time?
Maybe then, just maybe, I might see you in a different light, knowing you are facing the same fears, the same questions, the same choices…the same God.
Maybe, just maybe, I might meet you where you are, accept you, even love you, as you are.
Grace and peace to us…
What every man looks for in life is his own salvation and the salvation of the [ones] he lives with. By salvation I mean first of all the full discovery of who he himself really is. Then I mean something of the fulfillment of his own God-given powers, in the love of others and of God. I mean also the discovery that he cannot find himself in himself alone, but that he must find himself in and through others.
— Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island
You cannot tell me who I am, and I cannot tell you who you are. If you do not know your own identity, who is going to identify you? Others can give you a name or a number, but they can never tell you who you really are. That is something you yourself can only discover from within.
— Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island
The life of the spirit, by integrating us in the real order established by God, puts us in the fullest possible contact with reality – not as we imagine it, but as it really is.
— Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island
becoming flame 