Merton: the most personal contact

Saturday, December 10, 2016
    Commemoration of Thomas Merton, Monk, Spiritual Writer, 1968
Meditation:
In my anguish I cried to the LORD,
    and he answered by setting me free.
The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid.
    What can man do to me?
    —Psalm 118:5-6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Prayer is the movement of trust, of gratitude, of adoration, or of sorrow, that places us before God, seeing both Him and ourselves in the light of His infinite truth, and moves us to ask Him for the mercy, the spiritual strength, the material help that we all need. The man whose prayer is so pure that he never asks God for anything does not know who God is, and does not know who he is himself: for he does not know his own need of God.
    All true prayer somehow confesses our absolute dependence on the Lord of life and death. It is, therefore, a deep and vital contact with Him whom we know not only as Lord but as Father. It is when we pray truly that we really are. Our being is brought to a high perfection by this.
    ... Thomas Merton (1915-1968), No Man is an Island, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1955; reprint, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002, p. 43 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 118:5-6; 46:1; 56:11; 146:5-6; Rom. 8:26-27,31; Gal. 4:6; Eph. 6:18; 1 Thess. 5:17; Jude 1:20
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, wring from me the prayer of the heart. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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