life within life

 

 

 

 

You who sleep in my breast are not met with words, 

but in the emergence of life within life 

and of wisdom within wisdom.   

With You there is no longer any dialogue, 

any contest, any opposition.  

You are found in communion! 

Thou in me and I in Thee,  

Thou in them and they in me: 

dispossession within dispossession, 

dispassion within dispassion, 

emptiness within emptiness, 

freedom within freedom. 

 I am alone.  

Thou are alone. 

 The Father and I are One.

 

 

 

~ Thomas Merton

from Dialogues with Silence

sketch by the author

 

 

Your brightness is my darkness.  

I know nothing of You and, by myself, 

I cannot even imagine how to go about knowing You. 

 If I imagine You, I am mistaken.  

If I understand You, I am deluded.  

If I am conscious and certain I know You, I am crazy.

The darkness is enough.

 

 

prayer written by Merton in 1941 

before midnight mass at Christmas