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It Should Be Given Entirely To Love
By gartenfische | May 6, 2008
More and more since living alone I have wanted to stop fighting, and arguing, and proclaiming and criticizing. I think the points on which protest has been demanded of me and given by me are now well enough known. Obviously there may be other such situations in the future. In a world like ours—a world of war, riot, murder, racism, tyranny, and established banditry, one has to be able to stand up and say NO. But there are also other things to do. I am more and more convinced of the reality of my own job which is meditation and study and prayer in silence. I do not intend to give up writing, that too is obviously my vocation. But I hope I will be able to give up controversy some day. Pray for me. When one gets older (Jan. 31 is my fifty-second birthday) one realizes the futility of a life wasted in argument when it should be given entirely to love.
-Thomas Merton, From a Circular Letter: Septuagesima Sunday 1967 (Echoing Silence: Thomas Merton on the Vocation of Writing)
Topics: writing, Christianity |
May 6th, 2008 at 11:56 am
…and I know just how he felt!
Thank you, for this, dear sister Gartenfische, just beautiful…
Mike
May 6th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Call me a contrarian, but I don’t think that arguing and loving have to be mutually exclusive. You can argue in loving ways …
Ah, I’m such a contrarian!
May 6th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
i ***LOVE*** it.
Perfect. May we be given to love.
May 6th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Charlotte, I know you’re a contrarian! ;)
While I agree with you that arguing can be done with love (carefully!), and when you live with human beings disagreement is par for the course at times, I also totally empathize with Merton’s feelings, as I feel more and more that way myself (of course, being rude to guys with cameras is not loving, is it?—ah the contradictions of being a human being!). There are also times of one’s life when a person may be called to protest and times when she is drawn to meditation and silence. Perhaps, as with Merton, it often happens that as we get older we gravitate toward less protest/more silence. But I also strongly believe that some people are meant to be more active protestors and some are meant to be meditators/prayers. Perhaps both are needed for balance in this world and God has created both kinds of people.
Mike, I knew you’d love it!
And Karen, wow, haven’t seen you in a while. Glad you like the quote.
May 6th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
It’s odd for me to think that I’m older than Merton was when he wrote that! That fact certainly gives me perspective on who he was and who I am right now.
I wish the world would listen to him about the futility of argument and the need for love. This reminds me of a prayer in the Book of Common Prayer that I found today:
Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart [and especially the hearts of the people of this land], that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(page 824)
I really must pray that every day, at least until the election.
May 6th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
As I get older, I also find it should be given to silence.
:-)
May 7th, 2008 at 5:16 am
Wow. it is as relevant today as it ever was….
May 7th, 2008 at 5:20 am
Jan, I hear you ;-)
I was just thinking this morning, talking to the lad in the Post Office, who’ll be 21 in December, how did I ever get to be this age? I’ll be 60 in November - and I still feel like a beginner at most things that matter…
Mike
May 14th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Slowly coming to this. It’s taken some time. I’m almost 52 myself. Same age as Merton when he wrote this piece. I am wondering how to live a silent life. Not a monastic life, not a life where I don’t stand up and speak out against injustice, but a simple, silent life. Simple in speedh and in other ways. I have come a long way. And I have a long journey ahead of me. Thanks for the quote.
May 15th, 2008 at 10:31 am
PD, Yes! We all have such a long journey ahead of us. Thankfully, we don’t have to do it alone–God is always with us, and we have each other.