Posted by Mark Shaw on October 31, 2009
Are you lost? confused? Trying to make sense of today’s confusing world? Then think about Thomas Merton’s wise words on the subject that he wrote in Thoughts in Solitude: “My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahed of me. I cannot know for cettain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I ma following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I blieve that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing . . . I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”
What comforting words these are from the gifted wordsmith. Fear not, the Lord and the Holy Spirit are with you.
Posted in Merton and Being Lost | Tagged: Beneath the Mask of Holiness, Catholic, Catholic Church, Gethsemani, God, Good Lord, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Mark Shaw, Merton, Thomas Merton, www.markshawbooks.net. | 1 Comment »
Posted by Mark Shaw on October 20, 2009
Ah, it is now but twenty days or so until Beneath the Mask of Holiness: Thomas Merton and the Forbidden Love Affair will be published. More about the book at www.markshawbooks.net and a book trailer may be viewed on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4l4ID5LqtU.
My fondest hope is that I have written the story Merton wanted to be told for he has been a true inspiration in my life over the past several years. What a wise man he was; one whose inspirational writings are as relevant today as they were forty years ago.
Posted in Beneath the Mask of Holiness Book | Tagged: Ann Lamott, Beneath the Mask of Holiness, books, Catholic Church, Catholics, Christ, Dalai Lama, Eroticism, God, Holy Spirit, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4l4ID5LqtU, Jesus Christ, Joan Baez, Love, Mark Shaw, Merton, Palgrave Macmillan, Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton, www.markshawbooks.net. | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Mark Shaw on October 6, 2009
Let’s not forget Merton’s wisdom, “Love is our destiny.”
Posted in Merton and Love | Tagged: Catholic, Catholic Church, Gethsemani, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Love, mark shaw. www.markshawbooks.net, Merton, Thomas Merton | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Mark Shaw on September 28, 2009
In a day and age when truth is a slippery slope, Thomas Merton has needed words for us to consider. In Raids on the Unspeakable, he wrote:
“The true solutions are not those which we force upon life in accordance with our theories, but those which life provides for those who dispose themselves to receive the truth.”
What a wise man Merton was. And how badly we need a leader like him to guide us through the murky path the world faces today. More about Merton at www.markshawbooks.net and www.merton.org.
Posted in Merton and Truth | Tagged: Beneath the Mask of Holiness, Catholic Church, Contemplative Life, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Love, Mark Shaw, Merton, Monk, Spirituality, Thomas Merton, truth, www.markshawbooks.net. | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Mark Shaw on September 8, 2009
Thomas Merton wrote words of wisdom for everyone to hear, young or old, rich or poor, Christian or not:
“Despair is the ultimate development of a pride so great and so stiff-necked that it selects the absolute mierty of damnation rather than accept happiness from the hands of God and thereby acknowledge that H is a above us and that we are not capable of fulfilling our destiny by ourselves. But a man who is truly humble cannot despair, because in the humble man there is not longer any such thing as self-pity.”
Amazing. And so very relevant for today’s puzzling world.
Posted in Merton and Despair | Tagged: Catholic, Catholic Church, Christ, Christians, Despair, Gethsemani, God, Holy Spirit, Humble, Jesus Christ, Love, Mark Shaw, Merton, Monk, Thomas Merton, www.markshawbooks.net. | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Mark Shaw on August 22, 2009
Wow, here are some Thomas Merton words about contemplation worth savoring. They come from his Asian Journal, a time when he was, as I point out in the new book Beneath the Mask of Holiness, free for the first time in his life. He wrote:
“The comtemplative life must provide an area, a space of liberty, of silence, in which possibilities are allowed to surface and new choices – beyond routine choice – become manifest. It should create a new experience of time, not as stopgap, stillnes, but as temps vierge – not a blank to be filled or an untouched; space to be conquered and violated, but a space which can enjoy its own potentialites and hopes – and it own presence to itself. One’s own time. But not dominated by one’s own ego and its demands. Hence open to others – compassionate time, routed in the sense of common illusion and in criticism of it.”
Wow, again. Merton was amazing, wasn’t he?
Posted in Merton and Contemplation | Tagged: Catholic Church, Catholics, Contemplation, Gethsemani, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Love, Mark Shaw, Merton, Shaw, Thomas Merton, www.markshawbooks.net. | Leave a Comment »
