Wading Into Deep Waters with Thomas Merton (PrayerLife)

My Prayer Chair in my backyard by the river

For my soul's nourishment I am now mostly reading:

• Scripture
• Thomas Merton
• Henri Nouwen
• Howard Thurman

I read Merton, Nouwen, and Thurman because they all had prayer lives. They were praying people. They were not "too busy to pray."

I need to hear from someone who is not too busy to pray. I have no need to hear from someone who "believes in prayer" but "is too busy to pray" (= faux-believers). I don't wish to judge non-pray-ers. It's just that non-pray-ers are disconnected from God. Therefore, they have nothing to say.

The souls of Merton, Nouwen, and Thurman run deep. Their hearts were ploughed and planted and grown and harvested by God's Spirit, over years. I read them and pay attention. But most of all, I pray myself.

Here's a Merton quote I read this morning:

"In the afternoon-evening: realized that the one thing that is of any worth whatever in me, the one thing of value , and this is infinitely valuable, is the light to know God, the gift of faith that makes Him present in my heart. He who called forth light from darkness has shone in my heart! (II Cor. 4: 6)." (Merton, Learning To Love: Exploring Solitude and Freedom (The Journals of Thomas Merton), p. 12) 

There it is...   again. One Thing. 

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection. That's it.

Those that want to know this enter daily into the deep waters of God's Spirit.