March 30, 2009> 9:16 AM
the new man > one
I've been re-reading The New Man by Thomas Merton lately. You don't see this one on people's lists often for some reason. It's one of my favorites - this and New Seeds of Contemplation, top two. Very good stuff, getting into the deep realities of what our salvation is. I thought I'd share a few quotes with you...
...life is more than the reward for him who correctly guesses a secret and spiritual "answer" to which he smilingly remains committed.
...for man to live, he has to become wholly and entirely alive.
This finding of our true self, this awakening, this coming to life in the luminous darkness of the infinite God, can never be anything but a communion with God by the grace of Jesus Christ. Our victory over death is not our own work, but His.
Contemplation is a mark of a fully mature Christian life. It makes the believer no longer a slave or a servant of a Divine Master, no longer the fearful keeper of a difficult law, no longer even an obedient and submissive son who is still too young to participate in his Father's counsels. Contemplation is that wisdom which makes man the friend of God, a thing which Aristotle thought to be impossible. For how, he said, can a man be God's friend? Friendship implies equality. That is precisely the message of the Gospel: No longer do I call you servants, because the servant does not know what his master does. But I have called you friends, because all things that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. –John 15:15
March 30, 2009
> 9:16 AM
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