"All prayer, reading, meditation, and all the activities of the monastic life are aimed at purity of heart, an unconditional and totally humble surrender to God, a total acceptance of ourselves and our situation as willed by him. It means the renunciation of all deluded images of ourselves, all exaggerated estimates of our own capacity in order to obey God's will as it comes to us in the difficult demands of life in its exacting truth. Purity of heart is then correlative to a new spiritual identity - the 'self' as recognized in the context of realities willed by God."
Thomas Merton, Contemplative Prayer, p.68
All these activities that for Merton made up his life as a monk - prayer, reading, meditation etc. - are activities that we in the secular world might relate to spiritual growth. We may not be monks but as human beings we are spiritual beings who have the capacity for spiritual longing and yearning; to nourish our souls and become all that we can be. We may not necessarily use the language of "purity of heart" but we can surely connect this language to our own spiritual hunger, and recognize in it the need for surrender and acceptance - of ourselves, our situations, and perhaps even the "will of God" - though this is inevitably more problematic perhaps because it is the area of greatest surrender - I take it to mean a recognition of order, meaning and purpose and, another word I want to add, benevolence.
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Inherent in the phrase "purity of heart" is the idea of seeing clearly in a spiritual sense. Merton continues, "It means the renunciation of all deluded images of ourselves, all exaggerated estimates of our own capacity in order to obey God's will as it comes to us in the difficult demands of life in its exacting truth" (emphasis added). Once more I discern these three elements: ourselves, our situations (the difficult demands of life), and the will of God; and it has to do with how we see - the deluded images of ourselves, the exaggerated estimates of our own capacity.
In his book Subversive Orthodoxy, Robert Inchausti says that "spiritual growth is largely a process of dismantling false identifications, cognitive distortions, and idolatrous conceptions."
This seems very close to me to what Merton says about renouncing deluded images and exaggerated estimates. Once again, in this very compact statement, I discern three elements: ourselves, our reality (our situations) and our view of the divine:
false identifications = how we see ourselves
cognitive distortions = how we see reality
idolatrous conceptions = how we see God
All three are about how we "see" and all three relate to one another. How we see ourselves both influences and is influenced by how we see our reality - our situations, the difficult demands of life - and both in turn affect and are affected by how we "see" God, or perhaps it would be better to say how we conceive God (our idolatrous conceptions), if we want to preserve "seeing" God for the true seeing of the pure in heart, to which all our efforts for spiritual growth, all our prayer, reading, meditation etc. are directed. Thus, as Merton says, "Purity of heart is then correlative to a new spiritual identity - the 'self' as recognized in the context of realities willed by God."
So the journey, this "on the road" experience of life, is about purity of heart, which is about learning to see clearly, seeking a vision of God; but this cannot be separated from how we see and experience the life we're living, the road we're on, as it relates to the "will of God," which in turn is about who we are becoming - our true identity when we strip away our false identifications and deluded images of ourselves.
All these activities that for Merton made up his life as a monk - prayer, reading, meditation etc. - are activities that we in the secular world might relate to spiritual growth. We may not be monks but as human beings we are spiritual beings who have the capacity for spiritual longing and yearning; to nourish our souls and become all that we can be. We may not necessarily use the language of "purity of heart" but we can surely connect this language to our own spiritual hunger, and recognize in it the need for surrender and acceptance - of ourselves, our situations, and perhaps even the "will of God" - though this is inevitably more problematic perhaps because it is the area of greatest surrender - I take it to mean a recognition of order, meaning and purpose and, another word I want to add, benevolence.
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Inherent in the phrase "purity of heart" is the idea of seeing clearly in a spiritual sense. Merton continues, "It means the renunciation of all deluded images of ourselves, all exaggerated estimates of our own capacity in order to obey God's will as it comes to us in the difficult demands of life in its exacting truth" (emphasis added). Once more I discern these three elements: ourselves, our situations (the difficult demands of life), and the will of God; and it has to do with how we see - the deluded images of ourselves, the exaggerated estimates of our own capacity.
In his book Subversive Orthodoxy, Robert Inchausti says that "spiritual growth is largely a process of dismantling false identifications, cognitive distortions, and idolatrous conceptions."
This seems very close to me to what Merton says about renouncing deluded images and exaggerated estimates. Once again, in this very compact statement, I discern three elements: ourselves, our reality (our situations) and our view of the divine:
false identifications = how we see ourselves
cognitive distortions = how we see reality
idolatrous conceptions = how we see God
All three are about how we "see" and all three relate to one another. How we see ourselves both influences and is influenced by how we see our reality - our situations, the difficult demands of life - and both in turn affect and are affected by how we "see" God, or perhaps it would be better to say how we conceive God (our idolatrous conceptions), if we want to preserve "seeing" God for the true seeing of the pure in heart, to which all our efforts for spiritual growth, all our prayer, reading, meditation etc. are directed. Thus, as Merton says, "Purity of heart is then correlative to a new spiritual identity - the 'self' as recognized in the context of realities willed by God."
So the journey, this "on the road" experience of life, is about purity of heart, which is about learning to see clearly, seeking a vision of God; but this cannot be separated from how we see and experience the life we're living, the road we're on, as it relates to the "will of God," which in turn is about who we are becoming - our true identity when we strip away our false identifications and deluded images of ourselves.
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