Dorothy Day: nothing we can do but love

The sense of futility is one of the greatest evils of the day…

People say, “What can one person do? What is the sense of our small effort?” They cannot see that we can only lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time; we can be responsible only for the one action of the present moment. But we can beg for an increase of love in our hearts that will vitalize and transform all our individual actions, and know that God will take them and multiply them, as Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes.

What we would like to do is change the world - make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves as God intended them to do. And, by fighting for better conditions, by crying out unceasingly for the rights of the workers, the poor, of the destitute–the rights of the worthy and the unworthy poor, in other words - we can, to a certain extent, change the world; we can work for the oasis, the little cell of joy and peace in a harried world. We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever widening circle will reach around the world. 

We repeat, there is nothing we can do but love, and, dear God, please enlarge our hearts to love each other, to love our neighbour, to love our enemy as our friend.

Thomas Merton: my inner self

There is a silent self within us whose presence is disturbing precisely because it is so silent: it can’t be spoken. It has to remain silent. To articulate it, to verbalize it, is to tamper with it, and in some ways to destroy it.

Now let us frankly face the fact that our culture is one which is geared in many ways to help us evade any need to face this inner, silent self.

We live in a state of constant semi-attention to the sound of voices, music, traffic, or the generalized noise of what goes on around us all the time. This keeps us immersed in a flood of racket and words, a diffuse medium in which our consciousness is half diluted: we are not quite ‘thinking,’ not entirely responding, but we are more or less there. 

We are not fully present and not entirely absent; not fully withdrawn, yet not completely available. It cannot be said that we are really participating in anything and we may, in fact, be half conscious of our alienation and resentment. 

Yet we derive a certain comfort from the vague sense that we are ‘part of’ something – although we are not quite able to define what that something is – and probably wouldn't want to define it even if we could. We just float along in the general noise. 

Resigned and indifferent, we share semi-consciously in the mindless mind of Muzak and radio commercials which passes for ‘reality.’ 

Essential Writings

Marianne Williamson: it's my choice

Happiness is the choice I make today. 

It does not rest on my circumstances, but on my frame of mind. I surrender to God any emotional habits that lead me down the path of unhappiness, and pray for guidance in shifting my thoughts. 

In cultivating the habits of happiness, I attract the people and situations that match its frequency. I smile more often, give praise more often, give thanks more often, and am glad more often. 

For such is my choice today.

Thomas Merton: born to love

Love is our true destiny. 

We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone – we find it with another. 

We do not discover the secret of our lives merely by study and calculation in our own isolated meditations. 

The meaning of our life is a secret that has to be revealed to us in love, by the one we love. 

And if this love is unreal, the secret will not be found, the meaning will never reveal itself, the message will never be decoded. At best, we will receive a scrambled and partial message, one that will deceive and confuse us. 

We will never be fully real until we let ourselves fall in love – either with another human person or with God.

Love and Living

Thomas Merton: we are one organism

Only when we see ourselves in our true human context, as members of a race which is intended to be one organism and ‘one body,’ will we begin to understand the positive importance not only of the successes but of the failures and accidents in our lives. 

My successes are not my own. The way to them was prepared by others. 

The fruit of my labours is not my own: for I am preparing the way for the achievements of another. 

Nor are my failures my own. They may spring from failure of another, but they are also compensated for by another’s achievement. 

Therefore the meaning of my life is not to be looked for merely in the sum total of my own achievements. It is seen only in the complete integration of my achievements and failures with the achievements and failures of my own generation, and society, and time.

No Man is an Island

Mohandas Gandhi: the kingdom of God is within you

The Kingdom of God is within us and that we can realise it not by saying, "Lord, Lord," but by doing God's will and work. Therefore if we wait for the Kingdom to come, as something coming from outside, we shall be sadly mistaken.

Do you know that there are thousands of villages where people are starving and which are on the brink of ruin? If we would listen to the voice of God, I assure you we would hear God say that we are taking God's name in vain if we do not think of the poor and help them. If you cannot render the help that they need, it is no use talking of service of God and service of the poor. Try to identify yourselves with the poor by actually helping them.

Thérèse de Lisieux: the kingdom is within you

I understand and I know from experience that: The kingdom of God is within you. 

Jesus has no need of books or teachers to instruct souls; He teaches without the noise of words. 

Never have I heard Him speak, but I feel that He is within me at each moment; He is guiding and inspiring me with what I must say and do. 

I find just when I need them certain lights that I had not seen until then, and it isn't most frequently during my hours of prayer that these are most abundant but rather in the midst of my daily occupations. 

The Story of a Soul