God is not fully known when He is only “known” by the understanding.
He is best known by us when He takes possession of our whole being and unites us to Himself.
Thomas Merton, Bread in the Wilderness
It is the “great mystery of Godliness” which occupies him (Saint Bernard) before all else.
What is that mystery?
Not an idea, not a doctrine, but a Person: God Himself, revealed in the Man, Christ.
How is this doctrine understood?
When the Person is known.
How is He known?
When loved.
How loved?
When He lives in us and is Himself our love for His Father.
Loving the Father in us, He makes us one with the Father as He Himself is.
To give the quote context, here’s the whole paragraph from a chapter called Ash Wednesday:
In some monastic communities, monks go up to receive the ashes barefoot. Going barefoot is a joyous thing. It is good to feel the floor or the earth under your feet. It is good when the whole church is silent, filled with the hush of men walking without shoes. One wonders why we wear such things as shoes anyway. Prayer is so much more meaningful without them. It would be good to take them off in church all the time. But perhaps this might appear quixotic to those who have forgotten such very elementary satisfaction. Someone might catch cold at the mere thought of it — so let’s return to liturgy.
Who can resist a bare baby foot?Summer is for bare feet
In the spring of 2012, my father’s home insurance company sent an inspector. As a result, the insurance company required two changes: part of the roof needed to be replaced and two trees needed to come down, one of them being the tree shown above.
The roof and the treeStanding tall though stripped of its gloryMay 2018 — the stump
“I am sorry,” sighed the tree.
I wish that I could
give you something…
But I have nothing left.
I am just an old stump.
I am sorry…”
Shel Silverstein, The Giving Tree
The flowers around (and on) the stump — August 2018
Well, an old stump is good for a garden.
Come, plant flowers and enjoy.
A purple coneflower gives glory to God by being a purple coneflower and a petunia gives glory to God by being a petunia.
There is a world of difference between a community and a crowd.
Thomas Merton, The Silent Life
People often comment on the size of our family — “That’s a crowd!” But the truth is that family can be the very best of community, united in love.
Family — the best community
A common purpose and working together create community, even when languages and religions are different.
Working together in community (Bosnia – 2017)
The small town of Greene, NY, is community. When the village flooded some years back, we watched neighbors tirelessly helping neighbors and it struck me that this is a special community.
This high school graduation may look like a crowd, but it’s a community.
And then there’s Cooperstown, whose population swells from 2,000 to 50-, 60-, 70-thousand on Baseball Hall of Fame Induction weekend. Of course not everyone is like this, but an awful lot of make-a-buck people, get-that-autograph people, and swoon-at-celebrity people take over the village.
The tip of a very large iceberg — Cooperstown draws crowds. 2004?
Along the lines of community, on Monday, I was reading a post from one of my favorite sites: The Rabbit Room.
It began with these words:
Recently, there have been a lot of conversations about how the Rabbit Room can best bring people together and support the work of creative communities across the world. We’re happy to tell you we’ve been listening, and today we are excited to lift the veil on the next frontier of the Rabbit Room experience.
How exciting, I thought.
As I read the next line, though, I became troubled.
We believe social media is the key to shaping the world into a better place.
Oh, golly, I thought. I guess we’re moving in different directions.
As they laid out their vision, I became more and more sure that this was a parting of the ways — until, that is, I came to the Grammar Police.
Our Grammar Police™ filter will automatically correct abbreviated textspeak and fill in you’re every missed Oxford comma, incorrect apostrophe and dangling modifier.
I looked at the “you’re” and the date, and started laughing. I had been April Fooled.
just as ceaselessly as he inhales and exhales air.
from The Wisdom of the Desert (collected sayings of 4th century ascetics, compiled and translated by Thomas Merton)
A swimming picture because it’s in swimming that we learn to be intentional about our breathing until it becomes so natural that we no longer have to think about it.
Hot Dogs and Marmalade 