Allegory on the blessings of peace
1629-30 (180 Kb)
Oil on canvas, 203.5 x 298 cm (80 1/8 x 117 1/4 in)
National Gallery, London
Peter Paul Rubens

i have been doing nothing but reading - a lot - over the past few days in light of the anniversary of 9-11. i have found amazing tributes, incredible footage, inspired words, words of hate, words of disgust. all, actually incredible.

i have been engrossed in The Seven Storey Mountain - it is probably one of the first books i will read all the way through in a very long time (i am the type of person that has many books going at one time...) there have been so many wonderful quotes i have come across that i would simply blog nothing but merton if i were to retype them here - not that it would be a bad thing, mind you :)

i found the following to be what i want for my contribution, albeit a few days post-9-11.

~^~^~^~^~

People seem to think that it is in some way a proof that no merciful God exists, if we have so many wars. On the contrary consider how in spite of centuries of sin and greed and lust and cruelty and hatred and avarice and oppression and injustice, spawned and bred by the free wills of men, the human race can still recover, each time, and can still produce men and women who overcome evil with good, hatred with love, greed with charity, lust and cruelty with sanctity.

How could all this be possible without the merciful love of God, pouring out His grace upon us?

Can there be any doubt where wars come from and where peace comes from, when the children of this world, excluding God from their peace conferences, only manage to bring about greater and greater wars the more they talk about peace?

~~Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain