Prayer and love are learned in the hour when prayer becomes impossible and the heart has turned to stone.

Thomas Merton

Gratitude takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder and to praise of the goodness of God.

Thomas Merton – Thoughts in Solitude.

What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves? This is the most important of all voyages of discovery, and without it, all the rest are not only useless, but disastrous.  

— Thomas Merton

Dear 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 that I am following Your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe this:
I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You.
I hope I have that desire in everything I do.
I hope I never persist in 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 at the time.
Therefore I will trust You always, for though I may be lost – and in the shadow of death – I will not be afraid, because I know You will never leave me to face my troubles all alone.

Thomas Merton

The contemplative waits in silence and when he is “answered” it is not so much by a word that bursts into his silence. It is by this silence itself suddenly, inexplicably, revealing itself to him as a word of great power.

 – Thomas Merton