Personal Reflections
inspired by
excerpts from Thomas Merton's The Wisdom of the Desert

Do I believe I live in a decadent state (or society)? How am I passively guided by it? How do I depend on accepted conventional values?

Am I prepared to seek my own true self, in Christ? And to reject my false self, fabricated under social compulsion?

What does my false self look like? What social compulsions have fabricated it?

What does my true self look like? What do I need to do to realize it?

Have I freely chosen my way to God? Or have I inherited it from others who mapped it out beforehand? What is an appropriate balance between these two?

How much do I conform? Am I courageous enough to be different? To follow the secret, hidden, inscrutable will of God for me?

Am I hospitable like Abraham? Humble like David? Do I love solitary prayer like Elias?

Since God is the authority, and apart from His manifest will there are few or no principles, what do I see "[my] soul to desire according to God?"

The original excerpts can be found here.