These words by Thomas Merton struck me, His love of nature is like St. Francis of Assisi … He is a true Franciscan…
In the sacramental vision of reality, each bird, each frog---and Merton himself--- was continually created; moment to moment each creature was loved into being by a God who is intimately present to each speciesAnd each individual in that species. Merton understood that each creature reveals the immanence of God. Each creature is God coming to us. Each day is an experience of Advent. Making straight the way of the lord, building a highway in the desert is not for the purpose of going to God.We can’t “get to God” for God is too great, too transcendent, God must come to us. God has and God does. God is continually revealing God’s self in the world around us. God’s fullness is present in the person of Jesus, and in God’s overflowing love expressed in each creature. God is not Deus absconditus but Deus imtimus, a God who Saint Augustine said , is more intimate to me than I am to myself, a God longing to be discovered as the very Ground of my being.This is what I want to share with you today for a reflection my dear brother. And I would like to know what are your own true feelings on this that is written by the famous Contemplative Trappist monk Thomas Merton.
It is in this honest sharing with each other that we truly grow as brothers in service to others in the classroom or in our community as well as with our intimate friends. Would you agree with me on this?
your brother in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
Frank
