Your donation is tax deductible.
Thomas Merton: Contemplative Prayer
We may seek for something we have lost or we may seek to meet a person we have never met before. Seeking in such context always means the quest for something that is not present. Clearly, this is not the meaning of seeking God, for God is everywhere. God is present to and in and for everything that exists. In fact, all else exists only because it receives its existence from God and is sustained ins existence by God.
Contemplation, therefore, is becoming aware of something that already is: our oneness with God at the deepest level of our being. Merton is fond of using the term "awareness" to describe this experience. "Contemplation is the highest expression of man's intellectual and spiritual life. It is that life itself fully awake, fully active, fully aware that it is alive...It is gratitude for life, for awareness and for being."
"Contemplation" pg 81, 83 in "The Thomas Merton Enclyclopedia" by Shannon, Bochen and O'Connell (Orbis Books, 2002)
I like your style, the fact that your site is a little bit different makes it so interesting, I get fed up of seeing same-old-same-old all of the time. I've just stumbled this page for you
Reply to this
This was an incredible article. I came by your article and found it very useful.
Reply to this
This is my first time at your blog and I've really enjoyed looking around. I will come back again in the future to check out some of the other articles.
Reply to this