Emad Ibrahim

“It is only the infinite mercy and love of God that has prevented us from tearing ourselves to pieces and destroying His entire creation long ago. People seem to think that it is in some way a proof that no merciful God exists, if we have so many wars. On the contrary, consider how in spite of centuries of sin and greed and lust and cruelty and hatred and avarice and oppression and injustice, spawned and bred by the free wills of men, the human race can still recover, each time, and can still produce men and women who overcome evil with good, hatred with love, greed with charity, lust and cruelty with sanctity. How could all this be possible without the merciful love of God, pouring out His grace upon us? Can there be any doubt where wars come from and where peace comes from,”
― Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain

“When we do get there, we almost wonder how we got there. We know we did not do anything nearly as much as we know we were done unto. We are being utterly and warmly held and falling helplessly into a scary mystery at the very same time — caught between profound desire and the question, “Where is this going to take me?” It has been said many times that, after transformation, you seldom have the feeling you have found anything. It feels much more like Someone found you!”
― Richard Rohr, The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See

“Bob Gibney told him: “You were a Jew and now you are a Catholic. Why don’t you black your face? Then you will be all the three things the Southerners hate most.”
― Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain

“For in my greatest misery He would shed, into my soul, enough light to see how miserable I was, and to admit that it was my own fault and my own work. And always I was to be punished for my sins by my sins themselves, and to realize, at least obscurely, that I was being so punished and burn in the flames of my own hell, and rot in the hell of my own corrupt will until I was forced at last, by my own intense misery, to give up my own will.”
― Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain