June 10, 2024

“All men seek peace first of all with themselves. That is necessarybecause we do not naturally find rest even in our being. We have to learn to communewith ourselves before we can communicate with other men and with God. A man whois not at peace with himself necessarily projects his interior fighting into thesociety of those he lives with, and spreads a contagion of conflict all aroundhim. Even when he tries to do good to others his efforts are hopeless, since hedoes not know how to do good to himself. In moments of wildest idealism he maytake int into his head to make other people happy: and in doing so he will overwhelmthem with his own unhappiness. He seeks to find himself somehow in the work ofmaking others happy. Therefore, he throws himself into the work As a result hegets out of the work all that he puts into it: his own confusion, his own disintegration,his own unhappiness.” Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island

Sometimes we feel like we are floating comfortably on a raftdown a calm river, at peace and at home with ourselves. Other times we feellike we are in class IV rapids, grasping at little inner tubes as they floatby, trying to survive, pulling in lifelines where we can.

Today we will get ourselves back on the raft through ourpause, and then discern the stake of the tent that we need to strengthen to beable to come back to peace and rest.

Photo by Vicko Mozara on Unsplash