My God, while I am asking questions that You do not answer, You ask me a question that is so simple that I cannot answer it. I do not even understand the question!

"God, my God, God Whom I meet in darkness, with You it is always the same thing!  Always the same question that nobody knows how to answer! . . . You have listened and said nothing . . . While I am asking questions that You do not answer, You ask me a question that is so simple that I cannot answer it.  I do not even understand the question! . . ."

"You have contradicted everything.  You have left me in no-man's land.  You have got me walking up and down all day under those trees, saying to me over and over again: 'Solitude, solitude.'  And then You have turned around and thrown the whole world in my lap.  You have told me, 'Leave all things and follow Me,' and then You have tied half of New York to my foot like a ball and chain.  You have got me kneeling behind that pillar with my mind making a noise like a bank.  Is that contemplation? . . ."

"My God, I frankly do not understand Your ways with me . . . Are You trying to kill me?"

Thomas Merton

Photo: Fern Lake Burn, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; December 14, 2012