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Thomas Merton Quotes about Faith

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You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage,

You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.

Thomas Merton
Moving On, Faith, Courage
Thomas Merton (2009). “Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander”, p.206, Image

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following Your Will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.

Thomas Merton
Faith, Believe, Inspiration
Thomas Merton (2009). “Dialogues with Silence: Prayers & Drawings”, p.8, Harper Collins

To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything He has given us - and He has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense graces from Him. Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder and to praise of the goodness of God. For the grateful person knows that God is good, not by hearsay but by experience. And that is what makes all the difference.

Thomas Merton
Faith, Gratitude, Grateful

The biggest disease in North America is busyness.

Thomas Merton
Faith, Inspiration, America

Be human in this most inhuman of ages; guard the image of man for it is the image of God.

Thomas Merton
Faith, Inspiration, Men
Thomas Merton (1966). “Raids on the Unspeakable”, p.6, New Directions Publishing

We too often forget that faith is a matter of questioning and struggle before it becomes one of certitude and peace. You have to doubt and reject everything else in order to believe firmly in Christ, and after you have begun to believe, your faith itself must be tested and purified. Christianity is not merely a set of forgone conclusions. Faith tends to be defeated by the burning presence of God in mystery, and seeks refuge from him, flying to comfortable social forms and safe convictions in which purification is no longer an inner battle but a matter of outward gesture.

Thomas Merton
Faith, Believe, Struggle

The fact remains that we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful solemnity to the wind, and join in the general Dance.

Thomas Merton
Faith, Inspiration, Wind

Reason is in fact the path to faith, and faith takes over when reason can say no more.

Thomas Merton
Faith, Wisdom, Path
Thomas Merton (2002). “The Ascent to Truth”, p.39, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

God must be allowed the right to speak unpredictably.... We must find him in our enemy, or we may lose him even in our friend. We must find him in the pagan or we will lose him in our own selves, substituting for his living presence an empty abstraction.

Thomas Merton
Faith, Inspiration, Self
Thomas Merton, Ernesto Cardenal (2017). “From the Monastery to the World: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Ernesto Cardenal”, p.312, Counterpoint Press

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