Friday,
March 30, 2012
What to read for
today.
Chapter 32:The Night of the Senses
Questions for your
personal reflection.
Can you relate to the “dark and frustrated condition” and
the obscurity that Merton refers to in this chapter? If so, how did you
interpret your condition at the time?
Sharing with others:
What caught your attention or provoked your thinking today?
From the outset, Merton insisted that finding one’s true
identity was a painful process that had no predictable destination. He said that you had to have faith to
do this and I couldn’t relate to that word. Now I think that “faith” might be the appropriate word for our
willingness to enter this process and stick with it even though we don’t know
the outcome. Come to think of it,
we enter many other relationships on faith such as marriage, parenthood and jobs.
Posted by Genevieve
Posted by Second Thoughts
ReplyDeleteI could really relate to Merton today and found the chapter very thought provoking and helpful, and on a number of different levels.
It was a good reminder that spiritual growth doesn't happen in a straight line, and that it's naive to expect one's interior life to progress with clarity. That fits.
Also, what Merton says about getting frustrated and thinking you're at the end when it might really be a beginning or at least a period of readjustment. It was almost uncanny how he talked about us getting into a frenzy of activity and wanting visible results or else grabbing at the first thing that comes along when what we are really doing is avoiding the suffering that's the price of finding our true self.
I also liked what he said at the end about just going into the darkness on instinct and trust. Being quiet and attentive. That would be a really good daily discipline for Lent. Sometimes I think I've been doing so much reading and blogging about Merton these past few weeks that I might be missing the whole point of this reading study.
Contemplation is a mystery, contemplation is a discipline. Contemplation is difficult and sometimes frustrating. Contemplation can be frightening, the journey into oneself, sometimes unpleasant. the journey can be confusing and at a certain point we just have to "go for it"
ReplyDeleteHe makes a strong case for not starting the journey at all- for those who don't have perseverance etc.
But if we are to find out what we are truly made of it's a journey we must attempt
post by william