Thomas Merton, from A Silent Action: Engagements with Thomas Merton, by Rowan Williams. Fons Vitae 2011.
I can no longer see the ultimate meaning of a man’s life in terms of either “being a poet” or “being contemplative” or even in a certain sense “being a saint,” (although that is the only thing to be). It must be something much more immediate than that. I – and every other person in the world– must say “I have my own special peculiar destiny which no one else has had or ever will have. There exists for me a particular goal, a fulfillment which must be all my own – nobody else’s– and it does not really identify that destiny to put it under some category – “poet,” “monk,” “hermit.” Because my own individual destiny is a meeting, an encounter with God that He has destined for me alone. His glory in me will be to receive from me something which He can never receive from anyone else.
