In these challenging times, we fail and succeed with the things we need to do to be safe and keep others safe, and act on compassion to those who need us. Like most good, hard things, this is a work in progress. And we simply, faithfully, stay at it. Thomas Merton, contemplative, prolific writer and social activist in the 50s and 60’s, is a model for us.
He lost his faith and his work when he went into depression after Rome declined his request to begin his own monastery in Central America. His biographers, Jonathon Montaldo and Patrick Hart, describe how he returned to meaningful work at his home monastery and renewed his relationship with God. “……he surrendered himself to the slow heart work of seeking his faith one day at a time and one night at a time in the place where his eyes opened and shut…he got up and fell down, he got up and fell down, he got up over and over again.” Just like we need to do each day and every day, during these times and all times.