A thought for Lent from Thomas Merton

March 4, 2008

Thomas Merton has always been one of my favorite writers particularly in his understanding of the broad scope of the human experience even though he was a monk living a life of prayer. Though he wrote in the 60's his words are as relevant to me today. As I move through Lent and look to better myself in preparation for Easter- I realize that personal growth means waking up to the collective consciousness that God calls us to in living Holy lives. I am challenged to recognize the Spirit in each person I meet in order to embrace our sameness. So... if you happen to read this- Celebrate today the fact that YOU are "walking around shining like the sun!"

"In Louisville, at the corner of 4th and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, and we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness...

Though "out of the world", we are in the same world as everybody else, the world of the bomb, the world of race hatred, the world of technology, the world of mass media, big business, revolution and all the rest... This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud... It is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race, though it is a race dedicated to many absurdities and one which makes many terrible mistakes: Yet, with all that, God himself gloried in becoming a member of the human race... I have the immense joy of being human, a member of a race in which God himself became incarnate... And if only everybody could realize this!!! But it cannot be explained, There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun."

T. Merton