{"id":21605,"date":"2022-08-26T09:50:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-26T13:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21605"},"modified":"2022-08-26T09:50:00","modified_gmt":"2022-08-26T13:50:00","slug":"engaged-contemplation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=21605","title":{"rendered":"Engaged Contemplation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ksqH6OHrkYs\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Author\nSophfronia Scott draws on the wisdom and example of Trappist monk Thomas Merton\n(1915\u20131968) to discern her own response to the world\u2019s pain:&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A hermitage is not where I\u2019m supposed to be. Somehow <strong>I sense this. I\u2019m supposed to be saying something, doing<\/strong> something. <strong>And yet I feel anything I could offer would get swallowed up in the noise\u2014I\u2019d be an infant crying out into a hurricane. I stand on the edge of an abyss, my hands in my pockets. . . <\/strong>. I feel as though Thomas [Merton] stands next to me in a similar stance. He helps me think about the possibilities. I think he\u2019d say I have to get out there. <strong>I have to find a way to serve.<\/strong> He\u2019d definitely say my hermitage idea is wrongheaded.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c<strong>The contemplative life is not, and cannot be, a mere withdrawal, a pure negation, a turning of one\u2019s back on the world with its sufferings, its crises, its confusions and its errors,\u201d he writes. \u201cThe attempt itself would be illusory. No person can withdraw completely from the society of other people<\/strong>.\u201d [1] When he entered the monastery after months of spiritual struggle, Merton described a lightness, as of . . . a leaving of the world. . . . His writings from his earlier years focused mainly on the cultivation of interior spirituality. . . . <strong>But as he matured, both emotionally and spiritually, he too sensed there was more\u2014way more\u2014he could be doing. The world, the very state of it, required that he bring his voice to the table. . .<\/strong> .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1961, he wrote his first article on peace, <strong>\u201cThe Root of War Is Fear,\u201d and laid out the place for Christians in the struggle for peace<\/strong>. He writes, \u201cThe duty of Christians in this crisis is to strive with all their power and intelligence, with their faith, hope in Christ, and love for God and humankind, <strong>to do the one task which God has imposed upon us in the world today. That task is to work for the total abolition of war.\u201d<\/strong> [2] . . . \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the introduction to Merton\u2019s book <em>Passion for Peace<\/em>, author William H. Shannon writes, \u201cWhat had happened to him was that his solitude had issued into what all true solitude must eventually become: compassion. . . . <strong>This sense of compassion . . . moved him to look once again at the world he thought he had left irrevocably twenty years earlier, in 1941, when he had entered the monastery. He now felt a duty, <\/strong><em><strong>precisely because he was a contemplative<\/strong><\/em><strong>, to speak out.\u201d<\/strong> [3]<br> \u00a0<br> <em>Scott takes consolation from Merton\u2019s reflections on contemplative life and the world: \u00a0<\/em> <strong>I only have to step forward in my own vulnerable, broken, unkind, silly humanity. And I need to keep writing.<\/strong> I feel, as Thomas once did, <strong>I\u2019ve come to a starting point: \u201cThe conviction that I have not yet even begun to write, to think, to pray, and to live and that only now I am getting down to waking up.\u201d<\/strong> [4]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sarah Young&#8230;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trust Me in the midst of a messy day. Your peace-in my presence need not be shaken by what is happening around you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When you start to feel stressed, surrender and detach yourself from the issues surrounding you.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Know that in your surrendered state you will be at peace, the peace I give you and it is more than sufficient.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>John 16:33  <br>I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Psalm 105:4  <br>Seek out the LORD and His strength; seek His face always <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>JOHN 14:27  <br>Peace, I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled \u2026 <br><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Author Sophfronia Scott draws on the wisdom and example of Trappist monk Thomas Merton (1915\u20131968) to discern her own response to the world\u2019s pain:&nbsp; A hermitage is not where I\u2019m supposed to be. Somehow I sense this. I\u2019m supposed to be saying something, doing something. And yet I feel anything I could offer would get [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21605"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21606,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21605\/revisions\/21606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}