We are what we love.  If we love God, in whose image we were created, we discover ourselves in him and we cannot help being happy: we have already achieved something of the fullness of being for which we were destined in our creation.  If we love everything else but God, we contradict the image born in our very essence, and  we cannot help being unhappy, because we are living a caricature of what we are meant to be.   - Thomas Merton

Not much more to add to that.  I have greatly appreciated getting acquainted with Thomas Merton and am glad to have spent time at the Abbey of Gethsemani where he spent many years as a monk and where he now lies buried in a simple grave along with the other brothers.

Click here for the Abbey of Gethsamani site.

It's a new day for blogging.  Here is my intention (well aware that the road to hell is paved with good intentions).  During my sabbatical and since I have been writing down significant thoughts, prayers, and writings that I have come across.  I intend to share one of those notes once a week and perhaps reflect on them some.

I have already shared this with some at First United Methodist Church but I want to share it here.  When I first arrived at the Abbey of Gethsemani, a Trappist Monastery in western Kentucky, I noticed some cards at the check-in desk, on which was printed the following prayer written by Thomas Merton, who was a monk there over 40 years ago now.  The prayer was a perfect focus as I started my week of monastic solitude.  Here it is:

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 I will 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.

Thomas Merton,Thoughts in Solitude

This prayer is all about honesty before God and trust in God.  What a difference it makes in my life and attitude when I keep it in mind.