In the wilderness – Unfolding Light:
Luke names every locus of power,
every place where the Word of the Almighty
ought to land...
and it does not come there,
but in the wilderness, to a powerless peasant
without office or authority, a man named John.
Don't look to the mighty for the power of God.
Look to the lowly.Grace always rises from below.
In your own heart, yes, there are your strengths,
those things you're most comfortable with,
what gets noticed and praised—
but look also to the wilderness,
among the quiet, overlooked things,
the tender places, the sorrows and wounds,
the outlier hopes and fragile dreams,
for the movement of the Spirit.The Holy invades from the bottom up.
Holy Hermit Thomas Merton:
"Vocation does not come from a voice 'out there' calling me to be someone I am not. It comes from a voice 'in here' calling me to be the person I was born to be, to fulfil the original self-hood given me at birth by God."
"Do not be one of those who, rather than risk failure, never attempts anything."
The Merton Prayer:
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end. nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
Amen.
