To love blindly is to love selfishly, because the goal of such love is not the real advantage of the beloved but only the exercise of love in our own souls.
Interpretation
Loving without true understanding often serves our own needs rather than those of the person we claim to love.
This quote by Thomas Merton suggests that when we love blindly, we may focus solely on our desire to love instead of genuinely caring for the well-being of the other person. This kind of love becomes a selfish exercise where our emotional fulfillment takes precedence over the true needs and advantages of the beloved, highlighting the necessity of mindful and selfless love.
In practice
In a counseling session, one might use this quote to help clients recognize the importance of understanding their partners' needs.
The devil is no fool. He can get people feeling about heaven the way they ought to feel about hell. He can make them fear the means of grace the way they do not fear sin. And he does so, not by light but by obscurity, not by realities but by shadows; not by clarity and substance, but by dreams and the creatures of psychosis. And men are so poor in intellect that a few cold chills down their spine will be enough to keep them from ever finding out the truth about anything.
Our vocation is not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own identity, our own destiny....To work out our identity in God.
Conscience is the light by which we interpret the will of God in our own lives.
You are made in the image of what you desire.
But if you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I think I am living for.
I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now that I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.
Love? Be it man. Be it woman. It must be a wave you want to glide in on, give your body to it, give your laugh to it, give, when the gravelly sand takes you, your tears to the land. To love another is something like prayer and can't be planned, you just fall into its arms because your belief undoes your disbelief.
Real love is figuring out how someone wants to be loved and loving them in that way.
Your hope in my heart is the rarest treasure _x000D_ _x000D_ Your Name on my tongue is the sweetest word_x000D_ _x000D_ My choicest hours_x000D_ _x000D_ Are the hours I spend with You -_x000D_ _x000D_ O God, I can't live in this world_x000D_ _x000D_ Without remembering You
Writing is my love. If you love something, you find a lot of time. I write for two hours a day, usually starting at midnight; at times, I start at 11.
Caregiving requires the intention of love, caretaking requires the intention of fear. Not acting in anger when you are angry requires the intention of love.
Our vision is so limited we can hardly imagine a love that does not show itself in protection from suffering. The love of God is of a different nature altogether. It does not hate tragedy. It never denies reality. It stands in the very teeth of suffering.
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