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listen for truth

“Let the man of study then be perpetually listening for truth. When he bends over his work, the Spirit breathes in him, reveals Himself perhaps from outside, sends His prophets — men, things, books, happenings; the attentive soul must neglect nothing of it all; for this spirit of truth, like grace, often passes by and does not come back. Is it not indeed itself a grace?”


Sertillanges, Antonin G., O.P. The Intellectual Life: its Spirit, Conditions, Methods. (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1987), page 124.

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we all blaspheme

“We ought to pray and to plead as long as we live that God may hallow his name in us. All men are blasphemers of God’s name, some to a greater, others to a lesser degree, even though the arrogant saints refuse to believe this.”


Luther, Martin. “An Exposition of the Lord’s Prayer for Simple Laymen” (1519) Luther’s Works Vol. 42. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969), page 33.

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two forms of contemplation

“Normally, a life of active contemplation prepares a man for occasional and unpredictable visits of infused or passive contemplation. Also, active contemplation can never attain the depth and the purity of infused contemplation, which, in its purest form, takes place entirely without conceptual meditation. In active contemplation concept and judgment, or at least acts of faith springing from a certain mental activity, serve as a springboard for contemplative intuitions and for states of quietude more or less prolonged.”

Merton, Thomas. The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation. Edited and with an Introduction by William H. Shannon. NY: HarperOne, 2003), pges 57-58. [the text belongs to 1959]

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action comes IN contemplation

“Silence is not a form of passivity. By remaining silent, man can avoid a greater evil. It is not an earthly dereliction of duty to place your trust in heaven.”


Sarah, Robert Cardinal with Nicolas Diat. The Power of Silence Against the Dictatorship of Noise. With an Afterword by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Translated by Michael J. Miller. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2017), p. 151.

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action and contemplation

From a treatise on John by Saint Augustine, bishop

“The Church recognizes two kinds of life as having been commended to her by God. One is a life of faith, the other a life of vision; one is a life passed on pilgrimage in time, the other in a dwelling place in eternity; one is a life of toil, the other of repose; one is spent on the road, the other in our homeland; one is active, involving labor, the other contemplative, the reward of labor.

“The first kind of life is symbolized by the apostle Peter, the second by John. All of the first life is lived in this world, and it will come to an end with this world. The second life will be imperfect till the end of this world, but it will have no end in the next world. And so Christ says to Peter: Follow me; but of John he says: If I wish him to remain until I come, what is that to you? Your duty is to follow me.“

(Augustine, Tract. 124, 5, 7: CCL 36, 685-687)

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good and acceptable prayer

“Therefore, take note that a prayer is not good and right because of its length, devoutness, sweetness, or its plea for temporal or eternal goods. Only that prayer is acceptable which breathes a firm confidence and trust that it will be heard (no matter how small or unworthy it may be in itself) because of the reliable pledge and promise of God. Not your zeal but God’s Word and promise render your prayer good.”


Luther, Martin. “An Exposition of the Lord’s Prayer for Simple Laymen” (1519) Luther’s Works Vol. 42. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969), page 77.

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the false self gateway to the true self

“The basic and most fundamental problem of the spiritual life is this acceptance of our hidden and dark self, with which we tend to identify all the evil that is within us. We must learn by discernment to separate the evil growth of our actions from the good ground of the soul. And we must prepare the ground so that a new life can grow up from within us, beyond our knowledge and our conscious control. The sacred attitude is, then, one of reverence, awe, and silence before the mystery that begins to take place within us when we become aware of our inmost self. In silence, hope, expectation, and unknowing, the man of faith abandons himself to the divine will: not as to an arbitrary and magic power whose decrees must be spelled out from cryptic ciphers, but as to the stream of reality and of life itself. The sacred attitude is, then, one of deep and fundamental respect for the real in whatever new form it may present itself.”


Merton, Thomas. The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation. Edited and with an Introduction by William H. Shannon. (NY: HarperOne, 2003), page 55. [Merton wrote this back in 1959]

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good nutrition for the soul

“The deeper spiritual life calls us to external and interior silence and solitude that open us to the real abundant life of God. They call us to deny the false nourishment of egotistic junk food and to seek out real spiritual food. This means sometimes cutting ourselves off from the sugar-coated food of the secular world in order to find the real meat of the gospel. The sugar might seem to taste better, but it will kill us when eaten exclusively or to excess.”


Talbot, John Michael. The World is My Cloister: Living From the Hermit Within. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2010), page 116.

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one view of academia

“Academia is its own world, with its hierarchies, laws, language and currency. The Christian can survive there, but will not necessarily thrive there without some real smarts, some real vigilance.”


Hale, Robert. Love on the Mountain: the Chronicle Journal of a Camaldolese Monk. (Trabuco Canyon, Cal.: Source Books / Hermitage Books, 1999), page 45.

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the truly good will

“It is impossible for a truly good and sincere will to become irritable and quarrelsome when thwarted.”


Luther, Martin. “An Exposition of the Lord’s Prayer for Simple Laymen” (1519) Luther’s Works Vol. 42. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969), page 46.