“You don’t go looking for an object called God.“

You stop trying to reach God by educating your intellect. But you do try to awaken your heart. So, therefore, the great study of the monk* is to have an awakened heart. And, of course, you have to sort of know what that means. But I think we all do. It’s by love that we know God. And, as we say — it’s purely a matter of speaking — but it’s with our heart that we love God. And so this question of having an awakened heart means to cultivate a vigilant love. To cultivate the awareness of love. In the simplest words that I know: That’s it! This is what you do when you want to know God. You don’t go looking for an object called God. You cultivate the awareness of love in an awake heart. You keep your heart awake to respond to God by love. . . This a person can cultivate.

~ Thomas Merton, from a talk on prayer he gave in the 1960’s to the novices at Gethsemane monastery.

* The longer Merton was in the monastery the more intentional he became in stressing that the monk was not a different kind of superior or elite being. So, he stressed more and more that the spiritual life, the contemplative life, in particular, was not the exclusive purview or possession of the monk but, in fact, was available to any serious seeker and committed practitioner who desired to awaken their heart to Divine love.

Goodpeople, consider THE ALMOND TREE as mother dough, bread starter. Pass it on. ~ Thanks, Dan

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