Ashes of paper, ashes of a world 
Wandering, when fire is done:
We argue with the drops of rain!

Until One comes Who walks unseen
Even in elements we have destroyed.
Deeper than any nerve
He enters flesh and bone.
Planting His truth, He puts our 
substance on. 
Air, earth and rain rework the frame that fire has ruined.
What was dead is waiting for His Flame.
Sparks of His Spirit spend their seeds & hide
To grow like irises, born before summertime.

-Thomas Merton

God is a consuming Fire.
He alone can refine us like gold,
and separate us from the slag
and dross of our selfish individualities
to fuse us into this wholeness of
perfect unity that will reflect His own 
Triune life forever.

-Thomas Merton

This moment contains all moments.

-Thomas Merton

Lord God of this great night: do You see the woods?
Do you hear the rumor of their loneliness?
Do you behold their secrecy?
Do you remember their solitudes?
Do you see that my soul is beginning to melt like wax within me?
                                                 
-Thomas Merton

My Heart's Love
Bursts with hay and flowers.
I am a lake of blue air
In which my own appointed place
Field and valley
Stand reflected.

-Thomas Merton

Make ready for the Face
that speaks like lightning,
uttering the new name of your exultation
Deep in the vitals of your soul.
Make ready for the Christ, whose 
smile, like lightning,
sets free the song of everlasting glory
That now sleeps in your paper flesh,
like dynamite.

-Thomas Merton