March 9, 2006

• Impactful excerpts from No Man is an Island, by Thomas Merton.

  “We will see that we are human, like everyone else, that we all
  have weaknessess and deficiencies, and that these limitations of ours
  play a most important part in all our lives.  It is because of
  them that we need others and others need us.  We are not all weak
  in the same spots, and so we supplement and complete one another, each
  one making up in himself for the lack in another.”

   

  “My successes are not my own.  The way to them was prepared
  by others.  The fruit of my labors is not my own:  for I am
  preparing the way for the achievements of another.  Nor are my
  failures my own.  They may spring from the failure of another, but
  they are also compensated for by anothers achievement.”

   

  “Therefore the meaning of my life is not to be looked for merely
  in the sum total of my achievements.  It is seen only in the
  complete integration of my achievements and failures with the
  achievements and failures of my own generation, and society, and
  time.  It is seen, above all, in my integration in the mystery of
  Christ.”

   

  No man is an island, entire of itself;
  Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.
         – John Donne

  • 12:55 pm
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