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永遠無法完全解脫,不再恐懼,在遭受到嚴重的打擊時:身體突然出狀況時;或處在讓我們感到極端不安全的情況下,我們都無法避免、無法預計的,會有恐懼的情緒反應。如果有人說他已經完全跳出恐懼的折磨,那絕對是在自欺欺人。 譯自The A.A.Wayof Life:AReader byBill,—NY:Alcoholic Anonymous World Services,1967,p.263. Merton過世后第二天早上,我在隱修會議上講道。我談的是Merton尋覓上主的道路。當一個人想進隱修會時要被問的一個問題是:你真的在尋求上主嗎?而不是:你找到上主了嗎? 因為,重要的是這個人是否在追尋天主,是否有強烈的動機為:“天主是誰?”及“他和我是什么關系?”這兩個問題尋找答案。這不是知性的推理,而是生命的探索。對我來說,Merton 是一個了不起的探尋者。就象所有的偉大的探尋者一樣,他老是不開心,老是不自在,老是不安穩(wěn)。因為這是探索追尋過程中,必定伴隨而來的現(xiàn)象。從這點來說,他是一個完美的隱修者,因他不斷的找尋。我們要追求的,不是靜觀祈禱帶來的安慰與滿足。靜觀,就是尋覓天主的動作。 譯自Re,bert Weakland所著Merton:By Those Who Knew Him Best Ed.Paul Wilkes,NY:Harpers and Row,1984JeromeIn Durer39。s engravingyou sit hunched over your desk.writing, with an extraneoushalo around your head.You have everything you need: a mindat ease with itself, and the generoussunlight on pen, page, ink,the few chairs, the vellumbound hooks,the skull on the windowsill that keeps youhonest (memento mori)What you are concerned within your subtle craft is not simplythe life of language to takethose boulderlike nouns of the Hebrewtext, those torrential verbs,into your ear and remake themin the hichaechoc of your tune but an innermost truth. For yearsyou listened when the Spirit wasthe faintest breeze, not even thebreath of a sound, and wonderedhow the word of God could be claspedbetween the covers of a book.Now, by the latticed window,absorbed in your work,the word bees flesh, bees sunlightand leaf mold, the smell of fresh breadfrom the bakery down the lane,the rumble of an oxcart, the unconsciousritual of a young womanbing her hair, the brayof a mule, an infant crying:the whole vibrant lifeof Bethlehem, outside your door.None of it is an intrusion.You are sitting in the magic circleof yourself. In a er, the smallwatchdog is curled up, dreaming,and beside it, on the threshold, the liondozes, with halfclosed eyes.Stephen MitchellParables amp。 Portraits內容總結 (1)家庭生命周期階段 購買和行為模式 單身階段:年輕、不住在家里 (2)痛苦、罪惡、與圣經 Luke Timothy Johnson