Tomorrow is the Feast of the Impossible. Today I am going to try to sum up some thoughts from Cynthia Bourgeault's Mystical Hope that I think are at the heart of contemplation. Do you remember Thomas Merton's experience on the street corner in Louisville? It was a moment of infused contemplation when he felt united to all; he had the "realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I was theirs..." Later, Merton will talk about "le point vierge and I am copying this quote from Cynthia's book, p.36:
"At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will. This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God written in us, as our poverty, as our indigence, as our sonship. It is like a pure diamond blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could see it, we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely. I have no program for this seeing. It is only given. But the gate of heaven is everywhere." Thomas Merton taken from A Merton Reader
There is much to reflect on here and it is a passage that I keep going back to in my own thoughts as Merton is articulate and I just know that this point exists in me and is at the heart of my prayer.
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