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Thomas Merton Quotes about Destiny

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For each one of us, there is only one thing necessary: to fulfill our own destiny, according to God's will, to be what God wants us to be.

For each one of us, there is only one thing necessary: to fulfill our own destiny, according to God's will, to be what God wants us to be.

Thomas Merton
Wisdom, Destiny, Want
Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.138, Shambhala Publications

It is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race, now I realize what we all are . If only they [people] could all see themselves as they really are I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusions, a point of pure truth This little point is the pure glory of God in us. It is in everybody.

Thomas Merton
Fall, Destiny, Race

Each one of us has some kind of vocation. We are all called by God to share in His life and in His Kingdom. Each one of us is called to a special place in the Kingdom. If we find that place we will be happy. If we do not find it, we can never be completely happy. For each one of us, there is only one thing necessary: to fulfill our own destiny, according to God's will, to be what God wants us to be.

Thomas Merton
Destiny, Special, Want
Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.138, Shambhala Publications

First of all, although men have a common destiny, each individual also has to work out his own personal salvation for himself in fear and trembling. We can help one another to find the meaning of life no doubt. But in the last analysis, the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for "finding himself." If he persists in shifting his responsibility to somebody else, he fails to find out the meaning of his own existence. You cannot tell me who I am and I cannot tell you who you are. If you do not know your own identity, who is going to identify you?

Thomas Merton
Responsibility, Destiny, Men
Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.12, Shambhala Publications

It is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race, though it is a race dedicated to many absurdities and one which makes many terrible mistakes.

Thomas Merton
Mistake, Destiny, Race
Thomas Merton (2009). “Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander”, p.154, Image

Our vocation is not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own identity, our own destiny....To work out our identity in God.

Thomas Merton
Wisdom, Destiny, Work Out
Thomas Merton (2007). “New Seeds of Contemplation”, p.10, New Directions Publishing

Love is our true destiny.

Thomas Merton
Famous Love, Love Is, Destiny
Thomas Merton (1979). “Love and Living”, p.32, Macmillan

Our destiny is to live out what we think, because unless we live what we know, we do not even know it.

Thomas Merton
Destiny, Thinking, Our Destiny
Thomas Merton (2011). “Thoughts In Solitude”, p.31, Macmillan

A purely mental life may be destructive if it leads us to substitute thought for life and ideas for actions. The activity proper to man is purely mental because man is not just a disembodied mind. Our destiny is to live out what we think, because unless we live what we know, we do not even know it. It is only by making our knowledge part of ourselves, through action, that we enter into the reality that is signified by our concepts.

Thomas Merton
Reality, Destiny, Men
Thomas Merton (2011). “Thoughts In Solitude”, p.31, Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Since no man ever can, or could, live by himself and for himself alone, the destinies of thousands of other people were bound to be affected, some remotely, but some very directly and near-at-hand, by my own choices and decisions and desires, as my own life would also be formed and modified according to theirs.

Thomas Merton
Destiny, Men, Hands

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