There is in all things an invisible fecundity, a dimmed light, a meek namelessness, a hidden wholeness. This mysterious Unity and Integrity is Wisdom, the Mother of all,... There is in all things an inexhaustible sweetness and purity, a silence that is the fount of action and joy. It rises up in wordless gentleness and flows out to me from the unseen roots of all created being, welcoming me tenderly, saluting me with indescribable humility. This is at once my own being, my own nature, and the Gift of my Creator's Thought and Art within me, ... speaking as my sister, Wisdom.
*Thomas Merton
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We are all involved in this Tapestry of Life - we are It. In Love, we have Life. Apart from Love, we are Lifeless. We can become a breathing, pulsing death, as we walk around posturing to please others, to fit in, not Lovers. We are here, however, and for a short time, not merely to function, but to be alive with Life. Even the tiny sprout on the limb of a tree, being welcomed by Spring and drawn forth by Light, tells us as much about this Life as all the holy books in the world. And, possibly, the most amazing thing about this is we are all part of this Mystery. And, possibly, as surprising, is how many persons get involved in the details of living and forget the Beauty that surrounds them and calls them, like Spring, to live again. But, still, they move on and about with their lives, busying about, thinking to be busy is the purpose of life, while the purpose of life, if we can speak of such as a purpose, is to embrace and be embraced by the vibrancy and glory of Grace. How can Life already, always, be so intimate to and within us, and many - possibly most - humans have fallen asleep - or never awakened - to such a Gift? Nature reminds us of the Art of Life; however, Nature is the manifestation, and Nature Itself leads us to before Nature. So, pantheism is not a moving onward, but a regression. And none of the forms of spiritual transcendentalism - such as, in the rejection of this world by Bible-believing Christian fundamentalists, as they wait for some end in which only their group is saved from everlasting doom and damnation - is an answer. We cannot seek to escape the world around us and, at the same time, be intimate with Life. To live holy, I must immerse myself in this world, in compassion and one with others, all others. Even when alone, I must stand with others. Even when apart, I must hold the world in my heart. Where is life, after all? In the world all around us, here and now, and in one another. And could it be that our fascination with technology is leading us to indulge in a way devoid of the enchantment of and intimacy with Life? Possibly, some form of deep spirituality is our only hope to learn to live again, and not just go through the motions of a tyranny of activity, until we lie exhausted and dying, having forgotten the Glory of living. I see no other answer than a serious, deep experience of Grace, to learn to listen again from the Silence, and to be one together, in and as Life, transcending, in Wisdom, all that would divide us. By allowing myself to be drawn more deeply into intimacy with Life, I realize more my own being intimate with everyone, with everything, with Life Itself.
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