Tag Archives: Thomas Merton

My Favourite Things

Cream-covered cupcakes and no-fault insurance,No big surprises and endless assurance,Wild geese that fly with my cares on their wings,These are a few of my favourite things. I’ve been putting together a playlistof my favourite attachments.Oh, the delight I feel when I … Continue reading

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The Way to Begin Anything

The way we would begin in prayer is that we belong to God. And all the prayer starts and unfolds out of that knowing that we belong to God. We are trying to get past the topic of prayer to … Continue reading

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Accident on the Trans Canada Highway near Field, B.C.

Ten kilometres from our destination, we came to a dead stop. Over the next few hours, the line of stopped vehicles grew from five kilometres to twelve.Emergency vehicles came. A helicopter landed and left. When three tow trucks went by,we … Continue reading

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Colloquy*

I’m rattled and jarred. I fill my cartand don’t have the right card.I arrive at the door,and the key isn’t in my pocket.I remember the question I needed to askon my way back from the pharmacy. Every day I face … Continue reading

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Moments: Part 2

You, my dear reader, might think that when life-changing stuff like this happens that it would be so easy to meet God in prayer on retreat,but it was not. I struggled to stay present. A couple of times I fell asleep. … Continue reading

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Root Rot

“You see these roots here? They’re brown and have no filaments on them.” My daughter, Heidi, sat on our balcony holding my poor, naked Christmas cactus and pulled away the old soil and dead roots. “No wonder the leaves are … Continue reading

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You Can’t Always Get What You Want

. . . we start to notice the dynamics of this welling up [of the longing for God] out of the most fundamental day-by-day realities of our life, in our daily intimacy or lack thereof, our physical health or lack … Continue reading

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The Right Road

But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And … Continue reading

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Now I See

. . . we attribute authority to [our weaknesses] to name who we are, and they don’t because only love has the authority to name who we are. –James Finley, Turning to the Mystics Thomas Merton 4 My weaknesses don’t … Continue reading

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Perfectly Me

Finally, I’m coming to the conclusion that my highest ambition is to be what I already am, that I will never fulfill my obligation to surpass myself unless I first accept myself. . . . The unaccepted self that stands … Continue reading

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