Conscience is the light by which we interpret the will of God in our own lives.
Interpretation
Conscience serves as a guiding light, helping us understand and act according to God's will.
This quote by Thomas Merton emphasizes the role of conscience in our moral and spiritual decision-making. It suggests that our inner sense of right and wrong acts as a lamp, illuminating the path for us to interpret and follow what we believe to be God's will in our lives, thus highlighting the importance of inner reflection and moral reasoning in our existence.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion on moral philosophy.
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.
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.
A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual at all. No man can serve two masters. Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire.
If our lives do not reflect radical compassion for the poor, there is reason to wonder if Christ is really in us at all
A wide and vague impression exists that so-called Eastern religion is more contemplative, innocuous, and humane than the proselytizing monotheisms of the West. Don't believe a word of this: try asking the children of Indochina who were dumped by their parents for inherited deformities that were attributed to sins in a previous 'life.
Even as one and the same person is called by different names according to the different functions he performs, so also one and the same mind is called by the different names: mind, intellect, memory, and egoity, on account of the difference in the modes - and not because of any real difference.
War is the unfolding of miscalculations.
Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are dead.
We are still masters of our fate. We are still captains of our souls.
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