The silence of the forest is my bride and the sweet dark warmth of the whole world is my love, and out of the heart of that dark warmth comes the secret that is heard only in silence, but it is the root of all the secrets that are whispered by all the lovers in their beds all over the world.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a deep connection between nature and love, highlighting the tranquility found in silence.
In this quote, Thomas Merton illustrates a profound relationship with nature by depicting the forest's silence as a fitting bride. He reflects on how the quietness of the world fosters an intimate understanding of love, asserting that true secrets of the heart are revealed in silence, ultimately tying nature and love together in a universal experience that all lovers share.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a wedding ceremony to emphasize the connection between nature and love.
The devil is no fool. He can get people feeling about heaven the way they ought to feel about hell. He can make them fear the means of grace the way they do not fear sin. And he does so, not by light but by obscurity, not by realities but by shadows; not by clarity and substance, but by dreams and the creatures of psychosis. And men are so poor in intellect that a few cold chills down their spine will be enough to keep them from ever finding out the truth about anything.
Our vocation is not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own identity, our own destiny....To work out our identity in God.
Conscience is the light by which we interpret the will of God in our own lives.
You are made in the image of what you desire.
But if you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I think I am living for.
I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now that I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.
Hatred is blind, as well as love.
There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.
But sweetly and discreetly love passes from person to person, from heart to heart, or it is nothing worth.
She's beautiful, and therefore to be wooed; She is a woman, therefore to be won.
God is love, generosity and forgiveness; if we believe in this, we will never allow our weaknesses to paralyse us.
The married should not forget that to speak of love begets love.
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