#MastersofSocialIsolation

This is so good.

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/soul-seeing/seeking-wisdom-masters-social-isolation?fbclid=IwAR16Ywqcz_GozOwXBHfHiNwO3qljPqKSSD_S57KfrC1aqP2ViAcdSyH3Si8

#MastersofSocialIsolation #12. In 1941 #ThomasMerton entered the strict cloister of the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani. In the Trappists his heart was captured by the image of men “on this miserably noisy, cruel earth, who tasted the marvelous joy of silence and solitude." pic.twitter.com/vQrHj8WFir

— @RobertEllsberg (@RobertEllsberg) March 28, 2020

An excerpt:

I thought of Thomas Merton, who originally conceived of his flight to the Trappist monastery as a way of "drowning" to the world and all its compulsive and self-destructive habits. And yet his attitude shifted. He saw his vocation to solitude as a form of witness, a point of solidarity with humanity, a call to others to reclaim their true humanity and freedom and shake off the noise of ideologies and mass culture. And he remained vitally engaged with a wide circle of fellow pilgrims through his correspondence and writings.

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...  a call to others to reclaim their true humanity and freedom and shake off the noise of ideologies and mass culture ...

We're all monks now

https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2020/04/22/were-all-monks-now

by Gregory Willis

Kirkstall Abbey, a ruined Cistercian monastery located near the city of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. (Photo by James Genchi on Unsplash)

... we can use this moment to live into and be freed by the realization that there is much we cannot control. So much of our anxiety revolves around wanting to control the uncontrollable, and the pandemic can teach us the futility of this. 

According to Father Mark, we need to be attentive to the present moment and so focus on that which we can control: “If I can concentrate on being in control of that very small circle of reality that is entrusted to me and in some sense depends on me—how I use my time, how I take care of myself, how I care for my family and friends, how I daily and hourly turn my concerns over to God—then my anxiety diminishes.”

Read the whole article HERE. It's all good.