God manifests Himself everywhere, in everything

“Life is simple: 

We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent 

and God is shining through it all the time. This is not just a fable or a nice story. 

It is true. If we abandon ourselves to God and forget ourselves, 

we see it sometimes, and we see it maybe frequently. 

God manifests Himself everywhere, in everything--i

n people and in things and in nature and in events.

It becomes very obvious that He is everywhere and in everything 

and we cannot be without Him. You cannot be without God. 

It's impossible. It's simply impossible." 

~ Thomas Merton

photo source: pixabay

the gift of solitude...

Flower of Life Meditation Zafu

 ~ Thomas Merton
 "Today more than ever,

we need to recognize

 that the gift of solitude
is not ordered to the acquisition 

of strange contemplative powers,
but first of all 

to the recovery of one's deep self,
and to the renewal of an authenticity
which is twisted out of shape
by the pretentious routines 

of a disordered togetherness."

teach only Love for that is what you truly are...

 on Contemplative Prayer:

A Course in Miracles quote

"...one reason why our meditation never gets started is perhaps that we never make this real, serious return

to the center of our own nothingness before God. Hence we never enter into the deepest reality of our relationship with him. In other words we meditate merely "in the mind," in the imagination or at best in the desires, considering religious truths from a detached objective point of view. We do not begin by seeking to "find our heart", that is to sink into an awareness of the ground of our identity before God and in God. "Finding our heart" and

recovering this awareness of our inmost identity implies the recognition that our external everyday self is to a great extent a mask and a fabrication. It is not our true self. It is not easy to find. It is hidden in obscurity and “nothingness” at the center where we are in direct dependence on God." ~Thomas Merton