Thomas Merton on Love, Life, and Who You Are

Thomas Merton was an American Trappist monk, contemplative, theologian, poet, and activist. As his birthday (January 31) approaches, here are three of his ideas, each a piece of his prose laid out here as a poem for your reading pleasure:

The beginning of love
is the will to let those we love
be perfectly themselves,
the resolution not to twist them
to fit our own image.

If in loving them
we do not love what they are,
but only their potential likeness
to ourselves, then we do not love them:
we only love the reflection of ourselves
we find in them.

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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.
I hope that I will never do anything
apart from that desire. And I know that if
I do this you will lead me by the right road
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always
though I may seem to be lost
and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me
to face my perils alone.

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If you want to identify me,
ask me not where I live,
or what I like to eat,
or how I comb my hair,

but ask me what I am living for,
in detail, ask me what I think
is keeping me from living fully
for the thing I want to live for.

+ Thomas Merton