Sunday, May 29, 2011

A Year With Thomas Merton - May 29


United with History’s Sacred Currents

Tomorrow Sts. Nereus and Achilleus: I said their office in anticipation of the fresh green woods after work clearing brush, where the fire still smoked. I will always remember their little empty church in Rome, half in the country, on a spring afternoon in 1933.

“The Lord has plucked up proud men by their roots, and planted the lowly peoples.” “He hath put down the mighty.”

If I were more fully attentive to the word of God I would be much less troubled and disturbed by events of our time: not that I would be indifferent or passive, but I could gain strength of union with the deepest currents of history, the sacred currents, which run opposite to those on the surface a great deal of the time!

“Do not quarrel about a matter that does not concern you; and when sinners judge, do not sit in council with them” (Ecclesiasticus).

This especially strikes me: “Be wary, take very great care, because you are walking with your own downfall; when you hear such things, wake up and be vigilant.” It seems to me that at the moment I very much need this kind of “attention” and “listening,” for I have come to the most serious moments of my life.

May 11, 1965, V.247-48

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