I’ve been reading “The New Seeds of Contemplation” by Thomas Merton and am inspired by his deeper definition of contemplation. I consider myself (and my husband) a contemplative, but this book challenges not only contemplation of life, but a way of living it out.
The nature of this breakthrough is an awakening to a new level of reality. It cannot be taught, it must be experienced. It is a deep transcendent self that awakens only in contemplation.
Not just self-efficacy, self-awareness, mindfulness, intention or the object of calculated ambition; contemplation by Merton’s definition is “the living water of the spirit we thirst for, like a hunted deer thirsting after a river in the wilderness.”
This comes from deep within. Genuine contemplation is incompatible with complacency.
Our response to life circumstance is a reflection of our interior life and posture of our heart. God’s love seeks awakening of our inner self, our interior life. I am reminded to take risks of faith to make choices that deliver me from my routine self and open the door of a new being and a new reality! I am only on chapter 5 of 39, so I joyfully continue on this journey…
“For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks” Luke 6:45
Claudine Norden 