Artist: Charles Sprague Pearce
Here is a very wonderful passage from the works of Thomas Merton:
"The deep secrecy of my own being is often hidden from me by my own estimate of what I am. My idea of what I am is falsified by my admiration for what I do. And my illusions about myself are bred by contagion from the illusions of other men. We all seek to imitate one another’s imagined greatness.This is truly a very important observation because so many church people make a huge effort to be what the Church wants them to be. And that is a soul-destroying enterprise, I would assert.
"If I do not know who I am, it is because I think I am the sort of person everyone around me wants to be. Perhaps I have never asked myself whether I really wanted to become what everybody else seems to want to become. Perhaps if I only realized that I do not admire what everyone seems to admire, I would really begin to live after all. I would be liberated from the painful duty of saying what I really do not think and of acting in a way that betrays God’s truth and the integrity of my own soul."
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The person who gets too involved in church committees loses himself, and often her or his faith. I see that after a time with those who have done a term on vestry in church as well.
ReplyDeleteYes, I've seen that as well, Ciss.
ReplyDeleteI think that may be due to the fact that church committees are too often about maintaining the institution rather than ministering to a world in need. I often feel disappointed in the lack of courage on the part of the Church, almost anywhere, to act prophetically on behalf of the oppressed, - so many oppressed.
ReplyDeleteI know that sense of disappointment well, Tom.
ReplyDelete