We thank Him less by words than by the serene happiness of silent acceptance. It is our emptiness in the presence of His reality, our silence in the presence of His infinitely rich silence, our joy in the bosom of the serene darkness in which His light holds us absorbed, it is all this that praises Him.
Interpretation
True thanks to the divine is expressed through inner peace and acceptance rather than mere words.
This quote by Thomas Merton emphasizes that genuine gratitude towards a higher power is demonstrated not through verbal expressions but through a profound state of quiet acceptance and inner happiness. It suggests that the depth of our appreciation is revealed in our ability to embrace silence and stillness, allowing us to resonate with the divine presence that surrounds and sustains us.
In practice
During a meditation session, one might reflect on this quote to emphasize the importance of silent gratitude.
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.
We don't usually think of what we eat as a matter of ethics. Stealing, lying, hurting people - these acts are obviously relevant to our moral character. In ancient Greece and Rome, ethical choices about food were considered at least as significant as ethical choices about sex.
Remember that rights are moral principles which define and protect a man's freedom of action, but impose no obligations on other men.
Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.
If we should ever get to Heaven, we shall find nobody to reproach us for being black, or for being slaves.
I have spent years studying what it means to be white in a society that proclaims race meaningless, yet is deeply divided by race.
Here we have the paradox, the potentially tragic paradox, that our relatedness to others is an essential aspect of our being, as is our separateness, but any particular person is not a necessary part of our being.
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