{"id":355,"date":"2014-02-25T00:00:36","date_gmt":"2014-02-25T00:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=355"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:51:19","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:51:19","slug":"feb-25-thomas-merton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2014\/02\/25\/feb-25-thomas-merton\/","title":{"rendered":"Feb 25 Thomas Merton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday, February 25 \u00a0— a companion in a quiet time<\/strong><\/p>\n

Quiet time, I learn pretty much every year on retreat, is not about an absence of conversation. \u00a0It is about refraining from hurrying and fretting. \u00a0More like breathing than like panting. \u00a0So here I find myself on Tuesday morning looking out an east-facing window down the ridge onto the tidal estuary Hammonasset River; \u00a0these days it looks cold, its marsh grasses making a counterpoint with lots of snow. \u00a0I am not sitting on the porch — too cold for that, but behind a sliding glass door that opens onto the porch.<\/p>\n

Thomas Merton came to mind a half hour ago or so. \u00a0He makes good reading for me in times of stillness. \u00a0 So I \u00a0browsed a website called “Thomas Merton Quotes” \u00a0(https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/author\/quotes\/1711.Thomas_Merton?page=3<\/a>)\u00a0and picked four. \u00a0The highlighted line at the end is my favorite. \u00a0For more about his life and his death on December 10, 1968, \u00a0see \u00a0http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Thomas_Merton<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thinking of you in this quiet time.<\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

Thomas Merton quotes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBut there is greater comfort in the substance of silence than in the answer to a question.\u201d
\n\u2015\u00a0Thomas Merton<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image.\u201d
\n\u2015\u00a0Thomas Merton<\/a>,\u00a0The Way of Chuang Tzu<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cMusic is pleasing not only because of the sound but because of the silence that is in it: without the alternation of sound and silence there would be no rhythm.\u201d
\n\u2015\u00a0Thomas Merton<\/a>,\u00a0No Man Is an Island<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not want to be beginners [at prayer]. but let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything but beginners, all our life!\u201d
\n\u2015\u00a0Thomas Merton<\/a><\/p>\n

“There is no way of telling strangers they are all walking around shining like the sun.”<\/p>\n

Thomas Merton<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tuesday, February 25 \u00a0— a companion in a quiet time Quiet time, I learn pretty much every year on retreat, is not about an absence of conversation. \u00a0It is about refraining from hurrying and fretting. \u00a0More like breathing than like … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1064,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions\/1064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}