For Further Reflection:

I encourage you to spend some time in further reflection on this theme. Below are quotes from the talk and some additional quotes for further reflection.

Thomas Merton: “if you descend into the depths of your own spirit . . . and arrive somewhere near the center of what you are, you are confronted with the inescapable truth that, at the very roots of your existence, you are in constant and immediate and inescapable contact with the Infinite power of God.”

James Finley: "In utter simplicity, we intuitively realize within ourselves that our existence, though truly our own, is to [the One] Who Is as the waves are to the sea, as the light is to the flame. Our prayer becomes our basking in this light, our being quietly warmed by it, our being consumed by it. Our prayer becomes our silent sinking in the sea of being that is at once God and ourselves."

Cynthia Bourgeault: "What really happens when one enters the cloud of unknowing, resting in God beyond thoughts, words, and feelings, is a profound healing of the emotional wounds of a lifetime. As these wounds are gradually surfaced and released in prayer (one simply lets them go non-possessively, rather than retaining them for inspection as in psychoanalysis), more and more the false self weakens and the true self gradually emerges."

Cynthia Bourgeault: "We ourselves are not the source of that hope; we do not manufacture it. But the source dwells deep within us and flows to us with an unstinting abundance, so much so that in fact it might be more accurate to say we dwell within it. The story comes to mind of the little fish swimming up to its mother, all in a panic: “Mama, Mama, what’s water? I gotta find water or I’ll die!” We live immersed in this water, and the reason we miss it is not that it is so far away but, paradoxically, so close: more intimate to us than our being itself. The term I will use to describe this embodying fullness is “the Mercy.” It is the water in which we swim. Mercy is the length and breadth and height and depth of what we know of God—and the light by which we know it. You might even think of it as the Being of God insofar as we can possibly penetrate into it in this life, so that it is impossible to encounter God apart from the dimension of mercy."

Ocean of Love

I'm letting go now, Beloved One,

of all my narrow categories,

my rigid way of looking at others.

Make me loose with compassion,

willing to float, willing to drown

in Your delicious sea of Love.

- Hafiz