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Being, Not Just Doing!
My friend Jeff Wood, a scholar and fellow lover of all things Merton, shared with me an article which I really enjoyed: “On The Road with Thomas Merton” by Jeremy Seifert (https://emergencemagazine.org/feature/on-the-road-with-thomas-merton/). Seifert digs deeply into the life and words of Thomas Merton.
Jump with me today into a couple of Mertonian quotes!
“In order to live I have to die” is not an easy one to digest, until I recall how Christians are called to die to self and live to Christ. Paul said in Philippians 1:21: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (NASB1995). I love how the Amplified Bible explains difficult biblical ideas like this one: “For to me, to live is Christ [He is my source of joy, my reason to live] and to die is gain [for I will be with Him in eternity].”
“Life is not so much about trying to do something, just trying to be.” Being, Not Just Doing! One of the joys of engaging in Contemplative Prayer is the realization that our lives are far too often focused on how much we get done. My journaling practice of ending each day with a few moments to reflect on “where did I experience God today and where did I miss God today” is called The Examination of Conscience. Each day is a gift from God, and taking time to “examine” whether I am too busy “doing” things that I have not spent a single moment focusing on “who I am and Whose I am.”
Is there a tension here which is built into our human psyches? After all, we have to “do” things or we won’t be able to pay our bills, put food on the table, or put clothing on our children! Surely Merton would not condone just “sitting around all day never doing anything, just thinking and praying”!
Do not forget that the Abbey of Gethsemani (where Merton lived) was inhabited by Trappist monks who prayed the daily liturgy of the hours but who also worked out in the fields, in the kitchen, and in the shop creating their amazing cheeses, fudge, and bourbon fruitcakes! Their day – and our day – can be, and hopefully is, filled with a balance of both the introspective being and the need to be productive at something by doing. I believe the key to successfully implementing this concept is the word “just” which hopefully brings a blessing of balance to you today and every day!
Being, Not Just Doing! Is a challenge worth undertaking, wouldn’t you agree? I love getting “comments” from readers of my blogs, so please do not be shy! I never cease being amazed at how Merton seekers from all over the world are finding this blog site. Blessings on you today as you contemplate Being, Not Just Doing!
Leave a comment, if you wish, regarding this post or how you discovered The Merton Prayer and why it is important to you.
You will find The Merton Prayer and more at https://themertonprayer.com/
[NOTE: If your organization, church, or school would like a workshop/presentation on The Merton Prayer please use the contact tab and let me know! I can Zoom all over the world and have done 90-minute, 3-hour, 5-hour, weekend, or five-day workshops/retreats.]
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Amen!
All Catholics reading this blog will surely get a kick out of my ignorance. For years when I approached the priest for Eucharist, after he placed the wafer in my hand and spoke the words “The body of Christ, given for you,” I always looked him square in the eyes and said, “Thank you.” Then I moved on, consumed the host, and felt very close to the Lord and filled with the Holy Spirit.
One day at mass with my wife Miran, who is a “cradle Catholic” having been born into the faith as a child, she overheard me say, “Thank you” to the priest. She quickly informed me that the proper response to the priest’s words “The body of Christ given for you” was to simply say Amen!
I thought my “Thank you” had been polite and appropriate. But instead, it had caused a ripple of discomfort in the ears of any who heard.
Got me to thinking about the word Amen! Did you know that every time you conclude a prayer with the word Amen! you are speaking both Hebrew and Greek! The Greek word Amen! is a transliteration (letter for letter) of the Hebrew word Amen! which literally means, “Verily so, this is the truth, so it is, without a doubt” and other words/phrases connoting the assuredness and veracity of what went before the Amen!
All of which led me to chew on (pardon the pun) the phrase “This is my body given for you.” Some priests/pastors change the words Jesus used and instead say, “This is my body broken for you.” If you ever hear those words spoken at a Eucharist Service, I encourage you to speak privately with that person and point them to Psalm 22, the Messianic Psalm of King David, which is referred to very often by Jesus.
Was Jesus’ body “broken” on the cross? His side was pierced, his hands and feet were pierced, a crown of thorns cut into his scalp; but when the soldiers came to fracture his femurs as they had just done to the criminals on either side of Jesus to hasten their death, they stopped and did not fracture his femurs, since Jesus had already died.
Psalm 22 has so many amazing references to the life of Jesus as the promised Messiah (“anointed one”) I encourage you to read it very slowly. Verse 14 says “all my bones are out of joint” – not fractured or broken, just out of joint! And then the most amazing fact is in verse 17 which says, “I can count all my bones!” We can assume that since God created human beings, He knew perfectly well what modern medical science has since discovered and confirmed – there are 206 bones in the human body; not 208 which would have happened if Jesus’ femurs had each been broken in half!
When the Psalmist says, in speaking of the Messiah, “I can count all my bones”) we can read into these words “I still have only 206 bones, none of my bones were broken like the two guys on either side of me!” So, when I am told, “this is the body of Christ which was given for you” I rejoice and say Amen!
Verily, it is so, this is the truth! Not a single bone in my Savior’s body was broken and His entire body was given for me. Amen! indeed!
Leave a comment, if you wish, regarding this post or how you discovered The Merton Prayer and why it is important to you.
You will find The Merton Prayer and more at https://themertonprayer.com/
[NOTE: If your organization, church, or school would like a workshop/presentation on The Merton Prayer please use the contact tab and let me know! I can Zoom all over the world and have done 90-minute, 3-hour, 5-hour, weekend, or five-day workshops/retreats.]
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Keep Moving!
One of my favorite actors is Dick Van Dyke. I can use the verb “is” since he will turn 99 years old this coming December. At age 95 he was asked by an interviewer “What is your secret to such a long and healthy life?” to which he replied with his world-famous smile, “Keep Moving.”
Indeed, those two words come to me often now when I so easily can talk myself out of exercising. His career is amazing, and I encourage you to check him out on Wikipedia because you just won’t believe all he has done and continues to do! He read his memoir on Audible books in 2011 at age 86!
Something he said in his memoir has stuck with me: “Ok, we need three things in life: something to do; someone to love; and something to hope for!” I absolutely love that mandate for purpose! I also am confident that those three “things in life” correspond truly with the life of a Christian. Could this be any easier?
“Something to do” are the marching orders which Jesus gave the disciples just before he ascended back to heaven. His words are for us over 2,000 years later: go, teach, baptize! Spread his gospel so that all the world will know God and turn from evil. Keep Moving gets us off the couch, using our gifts and knowledge to teach, and being thrilled when a new believer is baptized into the newness of the Christian life.
“Someone to love” points us to our relationship with the Lord, every day of our life! If we stop and really think about who the Lord is, there is only and always love in our heart. God first loved us, we don’t even have to think about it: we have someone to love, every minute of every hour of every day! And the true joy about love is that God has given us human beings whom we get to love here on hearth! Keep Moving to that person God has called us to love! And then find another! And another!
“Something to hope for” is surely the easiest of VanDyke’s threefold life purpose for we Christians. Our hope is focused on spending eternity with the God who created the universe and flung the stars into the sky! We cannot begin to really understand what eternity will be like, but knowing it is there for us gives us undying hope! Keep Moving in hope which motivates us every single day!
But what if we Keep Moving and we sometimes, somehow, lose our way? That’s when the powerful words of The Merton Prayer keep us on track, focused on God and not ourselves. “Therefore, I will trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.” Maybe the words of my favorite “Mary Poppins” actor just might help me stay focused, get up off the couch, and Keep Moving!
Leave a comment, if you wish, regarding this post or how you discovered The Merton Prayer and why it is important to you.
You will find The Merton Prayer and more at https://themertonprayer.com/
[NOTE: If your organization, church, or school would like a workshop/presentation on The Merton Prayer please use the contact tab and let me know! I can Zoom all over the world and have done 90-minute, 3-hour, 5-hour, weekend, or five-day workshops/retreats.]
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I Chose Forgiveness and It Kept Me Alive!
Have you heard the “Wild Bill” story from the German concentration camps in WW2? This was new to me, and it blew my “theological socks” right off! I heard this story from a very credible source, Dr. Robert Sears, S.J., who has been my and my wife Miran’s spiritual director for over 20 years, and he claims it is absolutely true.
A Polish family of five were imprisoned by the Nazis in a concentration camp. The father evidently appeared healthy and so the Nazis pulled him aside for work detail while he had to stand and watch all four of his beloved family members shot to death and dumped into a mass grave!
Sit with that horrific scene for a moment and see how your spirit is dealing with it.
When the American troops liberated all Nazi concentration camps in 1945, they spent weeks working in each camp. At first the emaciated prisoners were scared of these “new soldiers” whose language they did not recognize and whose uniforms were different than their captors. If you have never seen any archival footage of the liberation work you might want to google it, the historical footage abounds on the internet and is easy to find. Here is just one link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyGQGEgTkLI
Back to “Wild Bill” who got this nickname from the American soldiers since he had a mustache and looked like Wild Bill Hickok, the famous American folk hero who lived from 1837-1876 and who had a very distinctive mustache. Also, his Polish name had five vowels and was unpronounceable by the Americans. Wild Bill spoke several languages, including English, so when he was asked if he was okay with being called “Wild Bill” instead of his real name, he agreed.
Wild Bill worked tirelessly with the American soldiers to help the sick and dying receive care with dignity, often putting in 16-hour days. Unlike his fellow prisoners he was not emaciated. He stood strong and looked as healthy as the American soldiers who quickly questioned him, “Sir, how is it that you are so healthy, and your fellow prisoners are skeletons near death?” His answer grabs my heart.
He said that after his entire family was killed, he had a choice. He could forgive or he could hate and seek revenge. He said repeatedly to any soldiers who asked him how he was so healthy, I Chose Forgiveness and It Kept Me Alive! He had endured the exact same starvation diet as others, yet he did not deteriorate into a weak skeleton. I imagine this conversation with Wild Bill:
Me: Why did you choose forgiveness sir?
He: Because anger and hate would eat me up inside, and because God loves all human beings, so how can I not love everyone?
Me: How are you so healthy when you had a starvation diet for six years?
He: A miracle, is the only way I can answer that question.
Me: Did you ever want to just give up and die?
He: Never. If I did that, then the Nazis have triumphed over me.
Me: What message do you have for us in 2024 sir?
He: Love everyone and forgive quickly, lest it eat you alive!
So, there you have it! Wild Bill’s story totally confirms what Victor Frankel said in “Man’s Search for Meaning” [Beacon Press, 2006] and which I referred to on page 74 in “The Merton Prayer: An Exercise in Authenticity” [ACTA Press, 2022]. The prisoners who asked, “why has God allowed this to happen to me” often did not survive, whereas those who asked, “what does God wish for me to learn in this awful situation” more often did survive.
So, what will it be for me and for you? Forgiveness or vengeance? May this day mark my constant connection with Wild Bill’s I Chose Forgiveness and It Kept Me Alive!
Leave a comment, if you wish, regarding this post or how you discovered The Merton Prayer and why it is important to you.
You will find The Merton Prayer and more at https://www.themertonprayer.com/
[NOTE: If your organization, church, or school would like a workshop/presentation on The Merton Prayer please use the contact tab and let me know! I can Zoom all over the world and have done 90-minute, 3-hour, 5-hour, weekend, or five-day workshops/retreats.]
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How Could This Happen?
Two years ago, I spoke with an 80-year-old man who started crying on the phone with me. What he shared with me he had not ever told another human being. When he was 10 years old he was raped by an adult whom he trusted. Not just once. Repeatedly, several times each week. Hundreds of times. It did not stop until he was 18 and left his home.
Was I surprised by his story? Not at all. Over 45% of the cases I handle in my law firm involve representing victims of childhood sex assault or trafficking. As I listened, he repeated probably 10 times in a ten-minute phone call, “How Could This Happen?”
I ask you: how do I respond to How Could This Happen? I listen and when given an opening say softly, “I am so sorry you endured this evil.” His unanswered question is the question we all should be asking, and we should NOT stop asking until we have the answer.
The simple and easy and inadequate answer is this: “[the rapist] said that if I ever tell anyone he will kill me and my parents and my siblings!” The worst was yet to come. When this sweet man, who had served a long career in our armed forces, was only 14 years old the rapist forced him to rape the rapist’s younger sister who was only 10 years old. The rapist watched this happen, and then he proceeded to rape each of them himself, forcing them to watch.
If you are ill at ease having read the above four paragraphs, then you have a soul and conscience which screams out How Could This Happen? My office motto at the bottom of my letterhead says Striving for Justice in an Imperfect World which was created by me largely in response to this and similar cases I have handled. The rapist was dead; he had never been arrested. Statistics from my expert witnesses indicate that this rapist likely assaulted upwards of 300+ victims over his seven decades of life. There could be no “legal justice” for this evildoer, at least none on earth.
Will the rapist receive justice ever? The classic Christian scenario has this rapist knocking on heaven’s door and being ushered into hell. If you believe the New Testament, especially the red letter words of Jesus, then you must agree that eternal punishment is awaiting this rapist if he has never repented and accepted the forgiveness that is offered through Jesus. When I preached a sermon on hell at my local church several people approached me with this question: “Steven, you don’t really believe that an actual hell exists do you?” To which I replied, “Yes, I cannot read and believe the New Testament without believing that eternal punishment exists.” Will it be a furnace burning eternally with fire? I do not know but I love this picture of hell: long banquet tables filled with scrumptious food, residents in hell seated across from each other tied into their chairs eternally, with forks and spoons each three feet long strapped to their arms. Got the picture? They starve to death since they cannot get the food into their mouths and their evil selfish spirits do not allow them to see how easy it would be for each person to feed the person across the table they are facing!
Read Matthew 25 and see how Jesus talks about “eternal fire” and “eternal punishment” for those who see hungry people and do nothing to feed them! How Could This Happen? Justice delayed, but eternal justice awaits unrepentant rapists, for sure! My clients and I get to see many unrepentant rapists led out of the courtroom and into prison. I often say to them words from Merton’s prayer, “The Lord was with you through your pain in the past and he will never leave you to face your future perils alone.” How Could This Happen? Because evil exists and has existed since the garden of Eden.
Leave a comment, if you wish, regarding this post or how you found The Merton Prayer and why it is important to you.
You will find The Merton Prayer and more at https://themertonprayer.com/
[NOTE: If your organization, church, or school would like a workshop/presentation on The Merton Prayer please use the contact tab and let me know! I can Zoom all over the world and have done 90-minute, 3-hour, 5-hour, weekend, or five-day workshops/retreats.]
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It is Right and Just!
In many churches around the world millions of Christians regularly hear this challenge, “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God,” which is followed by “It is Right and Just.” Every time I say those words I stumble over “just.” Maybe because I spend my days fighting for “justice” for my law firm’s clients and I just don’t easily connect “justice” with our giving thanks to the Lord.
So, friend, chew on this with me and see where you come out. Nobody, I suspect, will disagree with the adage that “it is right” that we creatures give thanks to the Lord our God. We have incredible things to thank God for: at the top of the list is God’s loving us so much he incarnated himself into our human form and died a criminals’ death so that we might have hope for eternal life. (John 3:16) Yes, indeed, that’s worthy of our thanks!
But “just” implies correctness, balance, health, morality, and/or right(eousness). So, stay with me here, how is my saying “Thank You God” any of those characteristics? Simply put, this is the question: How is “Thank you God” just? What the worship leader says next gives a clue, if not the total answer. After I declare It is Right and Just I usually hear these words: “It is truly right and just, our duty and salvation to give you thanks.”
There it is! It is Right and Just because it is our duty and salvation. “Duty” is a word which figures greatly in my work as a trial lawyer. I tell the jury that a defendant doctor “had a duty” to order blood work and a chest x-ray when his patient comes in having coughed up blood for three weeks! The 34-year-old man died because his doctor had failed his duty. And the jury of his peers smacked that negligent doctor with a “Just” verdict! That makes total sense to me.
But “salvation”? Ah, yes indeed, when that jury returned its verdict, my client felt that she had received “salvation” and she thanked them (and me) profusely, without hesitation! The widow (with her 18-month-old father-less son in her arms) could not even think about leaving that courtroom without giving thanks to the jurors as they walked past.
When I contemplate the blessings in my life, they are too numerous to count! For me it is a highlight in any worship service to be challenged to give thanks to the Lord our God. And the confirmation of that challenge always stirs my soul: It is Right and Just! May your efforts to properly thank God be enhanced today by grabbing onto It is Right and Just. To do less than constantly thank the Lord our God is flat out not right and not just!
God deserves our thanks for all he has done for us. Can I get a witness?
Leave a comment, if you wish, regarding this post or how you found The Merton Prayer and why it is important to you.
You will find The Merton Prayer and more at https://themertonprayer.com/
[NOTE: If your organization, church, or school would like a workshop/presentation on The Merton Prayer please use the contact tab and let me know! I can Zoom all over the world and have done 90-minute, 3-hour, 5-hour, weekend, or five-day workshops/retreats.]
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God Knows!
I have a client named Gloria whose voice mail message always brightens my day: “This is the day the Lord has made, so let’s rejoice and be glad!” Does God know what I am up against in this “day which he has made”? Does God know when I try to please him in everything I do? Does God know when I fail miserably in my effort to live a holy life? Yes. God Knows!
Yesterday I heard an amazing sermon by pastor Sun Kwak of the Christ Our Redeemer Church in Camarillo, California. He opened up Exodus 2 and 3 in a way I had never heard before. Verses 23-25 describe how God’s chosen people “cried out,” “sighed,” and “groaned” in agony. Three different Hebrew verbs, and in most English translations we see two of the “cry out” verbs but not three.
And then the most amazing words conclude chapter 2, and it is this comforting message which I focus on in today’s blog. “And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Issac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel – and God knew.” (ESV). Those last two words have grabbed my heart and won’t let go. Simple. Powerful. Comforting. God Knows!
Confession time! So when I pray The Merton Prayer and earnestly say with Merton, “I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you,” I always, seriously always, hear myself thinking, “Does God really know how and when I “desired to please God?” Does God know the details? I want God to know! I am so tempted to spend time telling God the details so I can feel confident that he does indeed know my heart!
No need for that. God Knows! These two words bring immediate comfort to my soul and I sing with joy the fact that the Creator of the universe knows what goes on in my heart. God Knows!
In the 7th verse of Exodus 3 we read, again from the ESV, “I know their sufferings.” We can rest assured that no matter what our issue or problem or suffering may be, God Knows! So, when I have a problem with a relative, God Knows! When I have an ethical dilemma with one of my law firm clients, God Knows! When I am facing a life-threatening illness, God Knows!
I hope that God Knows! brings comfort to your heart today. No matter where you are in life, what problems you are facing, what issues are overwhelming you right now. Take a deep breath and enjoy this message of comfort: God Knows!
Leave a comment, if you wish, regarding this post or how you found The Merton Prayer and why it is important to you.
You will find The Merton Prayer and more at https://themertonprayer.com/
[NOTE: If your organization, church, or school would like a workshop/presentation on The Merton Prayer please use the contact tab and let me know! I can Zoom all over the world and have done 90-minute, 3-hour, 5-hour, weekend, or five-day workshops/retreats.]
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Then We Fly Away
A birthday is always a time for celebration, right? Maybe yes, maybe no. When I was in my 30’s, my birthday was usually celebrated by finding a 10-K race to enter and run, even if there was snow on the ground (February 21st in Chicago, don’t you know)!! Wow, those days are so long gone. (And all of that running on concrete is what my ortho docs said led to my left knee replacement!)
Many of the biblical characters lived well into their 100’s with some like Noah living to the ripe old age of 950!! (Genesis 9:29), while others like Abraham were just a kid when he died at 175 years of age (Genesis 25:7). Seriously, God? If someone lived to be 175 today it would be plastered all over world newspapers! Did you know that we actually are told in the bible that our lifespan blessed by God is somewhere between 70-80! Listen to this Psalm which is called “A Prayer of Moses” – “Seventy years are given to us! Some even live to eighty. But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; and soon they disappear, and Then We Fly Away.” (Psalm 90:10, NLT).
God has blessed me with seven years of life beyond my 2017 cancer scare, surgery, and radiation. “Pain and trouble” – most of us can testify to that in our lives. I am sure readers of this blog and my book, The Merton Prayer, will not be surprised to hear me say that “my miracle kidney stone” saved my life. If I had passed that stone in three days in December 2016, which is the normal time span, instead of taking 8 weeks to pass it, I would not be around now. My cancer was so aggressive that my doctor told me after my 2/13/2017 surgery that if my cancer had not been caught due to that stubborn kidney stone, I had ONLY 3-6 months to live!
The Merton prayer has been with me every day of my life for decades and it took away the fear which came when I first heard my aggressive diagnosis and that I should have surgery very soon. You will not be surprised that I put off the surgery for three weeks so I could go to Kentucky and attend a UK basketball game with my brother and sister! Priorities must prevail, right?
So, as I think more and more about life in heaven with God, seeing my mother and father, the four grandparents whom I never met, my Brother-in-Law Dean, and many others, it is sort of a blessing to encounter Psalm 90:10 and to start thinking about “Then We Fly Away”. I look at birds in the air differently now post-Psalm 90. And when I hear that one sentence in The Merton Prayer – “I have no idea where I am going” – now I hear it differently! I do indeed know where I am ultimately going, maybe not today or tomorrow, but at some point. And I now am filled with joy by these words – Then We Fly Away!!!
How does this grab you? Can I get a witness?
Leave a comment, if you wish, regarding this post or how you found The Merton Prayer and why it is important to you.
You will find The Merton Prayer and more at https://www.themertonprayer.com
[NOTE: If your organization, church, or school would like a workshop/presentation on The Merton Prayer please use the contact tab and let me know! I can Zoom all over the world and have done 90-minute, 3-hour, 5-hour, weekend, or five-day workshops/retreats.]
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Happy Old Year
Every January 1st we celebrate the hope that the coming year will be “happy,” and we proclaim Happy New Year ad nauseam. I challenge you to enjoy a moment of “hope” for the coming year to be successful in ways we all desire, but then spend some quality time reviewing what happened to you in the previous 365 days. Can you honestly and comfortably proclaim, “Happy Old Year”?
If not, why not? My father used to say, “every day above ground is a gift from God,” and this sentiment drives me head long into each new year. Indeed, it drives me into each new day!
Here’s the question – how can we greet January 1st with Happy Old Year when the previous 365 days included a death of a loved one, loss of a job, serious illness to a beloved friend or relative, plans for an exciting vacation trip scrapped due to Covid, etc, etc. How on earth can I proclaim Happy Old Year in light of the above?
2023 saw a brush with a new cancer threat for me; a beloved brother-in-law passed away; my sister and brother both had serious surgeries; and on and on. So, the answer to my question is this: a Christ-follower can indeed shout to the mountain tops Happy Old Year because God never leaves us to face our perils alone!
That’s how The Merton Prayer ends, “I will not fear, for you are ever with me and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.” That is how each of us can grow closer to God in our daily walk – acknowledging that God is with us every step of our journey. That’s what Immanuel actually means – three Hebrew words, simply transliterated into English, with the meaning “God with us.”
Each of us can shout with joy and conviction on January 1st, Happy Old Year, because no matter where our journey took us in the year past, God never ever left us alone. Need a New Year’s resolution for 2024? Here’s an idea which I guarantee will keep you close to God in an authentic relationship – recite the Merton Prayer every day, slowly, savoring each phrase! You will soon have the prayer memorized and will find yourself saying it more often that you ever could imagine! The Merton Prayer link — https://themertonprayer.com/
Happy Old Year, Happy New Year, Happy Every Year! God with us, Immanuel, what a joy this life can be as we wait for our eternal blessing – all because God is indeed always with us. And as Merton prayed, “God will not leave us to face our perils alone.”
[NOTE: If your organization, church, or school would like a workshop/presentation on The Merton Prayer please use the contact tab and let me know! I can Zoom all over the world and have done 90-minute, 3-hour, 5-hour, weekend, or five-day workshops/retreats.]
Leave a comment, if you wish, regarding this post or how you found The Merton Prayer and why it is important to you. Thanks for visiting http://www.TheMertonPrayer.com!
Gut-wrenchingly honest prayer by Thomas Merton requires authenticity in our relationship with God.
The Merton Prayer 