Thomas Merton Quotes

But the very act of pausing in a busy day to pray is an act of weakening pride in my life, acknowledging that I am a dependent creature. I am not self sufficient.

All I really want - when I pray , I don't really ask for anything. All I want to do is God's will and make the best decisions I can. I don't go out and preach.

Was it not through pride that the devil became the devil? Christ wanted to serve. The devil wanted to rule.

Meekness implies a spirit of gratitude as opposed to an attitude of self-sufficiency, an acknowledgement of a greater power beyond oneself, a recognition of God, and an acceptance of his commandments.

The higher we are placed, the more humbly we should walk.

I cannot follow you Christians; for you try to crawl through your life upon your knees, while I stride through mine on my feet.

Humility may well be one of the most difficult of the fruit of the Spirit to be cultivated in us - and to maintain. That's because without humility, it's not likely that you will put your complete trust in God.

Spread out your petition before God, and then say, "Thy will, not mine, be done." The sweetest lesson I have learned in God's school is to let the Lord choose for me.

The law stops every man's mouth. God will have a man humble himself down on his face before Him, with not a word to say for himself. Then God will speak to him, when he owns that he is a sinner, and gets rid of all his own righteousness.

Many of us have a tendency to forget the Gracious Hand which has preserved our nation, enriched it, strengthened it. Many of us imagine in the foolishness of pride, that our manifold blessings are due not to God's goodness, but to our own wisdom and virtue. Too many of us have been so drunk with self-sufficiency as no longer to feel the need of prayer.

True prayer is asking God what He wants.

When we don't understand and don't agree with the way life has gone, we are to bow before God and once again confess that we can't understand His wisdom. In faith, we are to accept His wisdom, His Word, and His workings, trusting in Him and obeying His commands.

The purpose of prayer and of God's call in your life isn't to make you number one in the world's eyes but to make Him number one in your life.

Prayer is not a means by which I seek to control God; it is a means of putting myself in a position where God can control me.

Prayer isn't where we change God, but He changes us. Instead of praying for OUR desires, let's pray He burden us with HIS.

We should not feel pride in our charity, austerity, valour, scriptural knowledge, modestyandmorality for the world is full of the rarest gems.

The exterior must be joined to the interior to obtain anything from God, that is to say, we must kneel, pray with the lips, and soon, in order that proud man, who would not submit himself to God, may be now subject to the creature.

If you feel proud, let it be in the thought that you are the servant of God, the son of God. Great men have the nature of a child. They are always a child before Him; so they are free from pride. All their strength is of God and not their own. It belongs to Him and comes from Him.

The basis of action on love, the brotherhood of all men, the value of the individual... the humility of the spirit.

It is much easier for me to imagine a praying murderer, a praying prostitute, than a vain person praying. Nothing is so at odds with prayer as vanity.

The great point is to renounce your own wisdom by simplicity of walk, and to be ready to give up the favor, esteem, and approbation of every one, whenever the path in which God leads you passes that way.

He must put aside his pride, his virtue, beauty and life and bow or submit to the absolutely intolerable.

I want to be aware of how I treat others, not thinking too highly of myself to be a servant in a culture which tries to place me on a throne that only God should sit.

Nothing is so at odds with prayer as vanity.

To be poor without murmuring is difficult. To be rich without being proud is easy.