It is in deep solitude and silence that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brother and sister.
Interpretation
Solitude and silence help cultivate true love for others.
In the quote, Thomas Merton emphasizes that finding peace through solitude and silence allows one to develop genuine feelings of love and compassion for others. This suggests that introspection and self-awareness are essential to fostering meaningful relationships with those we care about.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of community, one might say, 'As Thomas Merton reminds us, it is in deep solitude and silence that we can foster real love for our friends and family.'
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.
You dance love, and you dance joy, and you dance dreams.
I was the subject of an experiment in love. I lived my life under her gaze, undergoing certain trials for her so that she would not have to undergo them for herself. But, how are our certainties forged, except by the sweat and tears of other people? If your parents don't teach you how to live; you learn it from books; and clever people watch you learn from your mistakes.
I've been in love with people and ideas in several cities and learned that the lovers I've loved and the ideas I've embraced depended on where I was, how cold it was, and what I had to do to be able to stand it.
You're able to love others, to give to others, and do for others by giving and doing for yourself first.
A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity, it dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path.
Close your eyes and I'll kiss you, Tomorrow I'll miss you.
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