The great thing, and the only thing, is to adore and praise GOD.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of recognizing and appreciating a higher power.
Thomas Merton highlights the fundamental significance of adoration and praise towards God, suggesting that the essence of life lies in a deep reverence for the divine. In this perspective, acknowledging and honoring God's presence is presented as the ultimate pursuit in one's existence, transcending all worldly concerns.
In practice
In a sermon about faith, one might use this quote to illustrate the importance of worship.
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.
Our crime against criminals lies in the fact that we treat them like rascals.
Your skin is prickly from fatigue and pain and there is a hissing in your ears. Time passes and the pills are taking hold like a glowing white planet coming into view. A reverse eclipse. And you watch with your eyes closed. The white planet is half exposed, it grips your heart in its light and seems to be pulling you forward and now you feel that you are falling. You are awake but dreaming. "The earth is not beautiful but the universe is," you say.
My choice is what I choose to do and if I'm causing no harm it shouldn't bother you. Your choice is who you choose to be and if you're causin' no harm, then your alright with me.
Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it.
The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end.
I have always given it as my decided opinion that no nation had a right to intermeddle in the internal concerns of another; that every one had a right to form and adopt whatever government they liked best to live under themselves.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.