Sunday, December 8, 2019

this little point of nothingness and absolute poverty

  This peculiar galaxy pair is called Arp 116. Arp 116 is composed of a giant elliptical galaxy known as Messier 60 (or M60) and a much smaller spiral galaxy, NGC 4647. 
From the NASA Space Advent Calendar which is HERE.


In the center of our being is a point of nothingness  
which is untouched by sin and by 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 absolute poverty
is the pure glory of God in us.
 
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, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, p. 158

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