Merton and Love
Posted by Mark Shaw on May 9, 2008
For a new book I am writing about Thomas Merton and his struggle to find the true meaning of loving, and being loved, I have been struck by a passage he writes in his book, Love and Loving: “[Love] transforms our entire life. Genuine love is a personal revolution. Love takes your ideas, your desires, and your actions and welds them together in one experience and one living reality which is the new you.”
What beautiful prose to describe what most everyone wants in their life, to know what love is all about, to love, and to be loved. When we truly love, we reach out to others, naked, our emotions pure, our willingness to share, to help, to care, to be there in time of need, all wrapped up in a warm blanket of love. When we truly love, we are exposing the finest qualities of our beings, feelings straight from the heart that show our willingness to become one with those that we love.
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Doug said
Hi Mark,
Great that you are blogging and that I can keep in touch with your fine and gentle intellect on a regular basis.
Have you come across whether Merton distinguished between eros and agape? For a reference, there is the book by the Swedish Lutheran bishop Nygren called “Agape and Eros” (or is it the other way around?)
Your quote of Merton is succinct and indeed “beautiful prose.” Did Merton work with the techniques of Bernard of Clairvaux, by any chance?
All my best from San Anselmo,
Doug
Jerry said
Prof: You are the best. Love is the key to our own existence