Sunday, January 27, 2008

This Demented Inn

"Into this world, this demented inn, in which there is absolutely no room for him at all, Christ has come uninvited. But because he cannot be at home in it - because he is out of place in it, and yet must be in it - his place is with those others who do not belong, who are rejected because they are regarded as weak; and with those who are discredited, who are denied the status of persons, and are tortured, exterminated. With those for whom there is no room, Christ is present in this world. He is mysteriously present in those for whom there seems to be nothing but the world at its worst" (Thomas Merton).


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You stole my quote....

Jen R. said...

I like Merton...thanks for the post.

Kellee said...

The fact that both God & Christ almost always call(ed) the "broken" has such a deeper meaning to me these days...

I keep thinking about the quote below every time I come here to re-read Merton's quote. I have no idea where I heard and/or read it.

"God rarely calls the prepared but always prepares the called."

Anonymous said...

The full text that the Merton quote comes from is here...http://www.lo.redjupiter.com/gems/hartfordstreet/TimeofNoRoom.html.
No idea where it was originally published or in what form but was very excited to find the full text. BTW, Chris did seriously steal the portion he has quoted on the blog directly off of my email signature--I put it on my sig. line every Christmas and was very happy this Christmas to actually find the full text online!

And I think the God prepares the called quote may come from Mother Teresa possibly--if not originally from her I am pretty sure that she was fond of quoting whoever it originated with.

Anonymous said...

Wow, I always liked Merton but have not seen that before. May I ask were you stumbled across that quote?

And thank you very much for posting it.

Sawyer.

My name is Ken and I'm a sex addict. said...

I love this! I have never read Merton, but I plan to now.