Slowing down
“We must slow down to a human tempo, and we’ll begin to have time to listen.” - Thomas Merton
Once again, I am struck by the healing words of Thomas Merton in 1968, just before he left to meet with his monastic counterparts in Asia. He addresses here a need that so many of us feel acutely today — the need to return our lives to the speed of our souls, lest we distance ourselves from the essence of who we are in God. And Merton’s observation that contemplation is first of all about discovering what we already have, that we are already one with God, that we already have everything but often are living as if the opposite were true - this observation alone, about Christ’s real and loving presence (“Remember, I am with you always”), when experienced in the heart, has the power to change everything. In the words of another Christian contemplative teacher today, this is “the Copernican revolution of the soul.”1
Savor this brief excerpt from Merton’s teaching, as remembered by Brother David Steindl-Rast, and see the link in the parenthesis below to read a fuller transcript of Merton’s teaching:
“In prayer we discover what we already have. You start where you are and you deepen what you already have, and you realize that you are already there. We already have everything, but we don’t know it and we don’t experience it. Everything has been given to us in Christ. All we need is to experience what we already possess. The trouble is, we aren’t taking time to do so.
“If we really want prayer, we’ll have to give it time. We must slow down to a human tempo, and we’ll begin to have time to listen. And as soon as we listen to what’s going on, things will begin to take shape by themselves. But for this we have to experience time in a new way.”
– Thomas Merton
(Before Thomas Merton traveled to the East where he would die in Bangkok on December 10, 1968, he met with a group of Cisterians at Our Lady of the Redwoods in Northern California. David Steindl-Rast, OSB was there and took these notes.)
Martin Laird, A Sunlit Absence