Posts tagged right

What do I have a GIVENNESS NOW to?

Acquiring the right taste.

“The first step in the interior life, nowadays, is not, as some might imagine, learning not to see and taste and hear and feel things.  

On the contrary, what we must do is begin by unlearning our wrong ways of seeing, tasting, feeling, and so forth, and acquire a few of the right ones.

For asceticism is not merely a matter of renouncing television, cigarettes, and gin.

Before we can begin to be ascetics, we first have to see life as if it were something more than a hypnotizing telecast.  

And we must be able to taste something besides tobacco and alcohol: we must perhaps even be able to taste these luxuries themselves as if they were too good.

How can our conscience tell us whether or not we are renouncing things unless it first of all tells us that we know how to use them properly?  

For renunciation is not an end in itself: it helps us to use things better.  It helps us to give them away.  

If reality revolts us, if we merely turn away from it in disgust, to whom shall we sacrifice it?  How shall we consecrate it?  How shall we make of it a gift to God and to men?”  Thomas Merton, No Man is An Island

…we must perhaps even be able to taste these luxuries themselves as if they were too good.

I have a GIVENNESS NOW to acquiring the right taste.

What do I have a GIVENNESS NOW to?

Quit ‘The Price is Right’.


“The kingdom of God is like a king who decided to square accounts with his servants. As he got under way, one servant was brought before him who had run up a debt of a hundred thousand dollars. 

He couldn’t pay up, so the king ordered the man, along with his wife, children, and goods, to be auctioned off at the slave market.

The poor wretch threw himself at the king’s feet and begged, ‘Give me a chance and I’ll pay it all back.’

Touched by his plea, the king let him off, erasing the debt.


The servant was no sooner out of the room when he came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him ten dollars. He seized him by the throat and demanded, ‘Pay up. Now!’

The poor wretch threw himself down and begged, ‘Give me a chance and I’ll pay it all back.’ 

But he wouldn’t do it. 

He had him arrested and put in jail until the debt was paid. When the other servants saw this going on, they were outraged and brought a detailed report to the king.


The king summoned the man and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave your entire debt when you begged me for mercy. 

Shouldn’t you be compelled to be merciful to your fellow servant who asked for mercy?”  Matthew 18:23-35

Game over.






…the indebtedness of the incarnation.

I have a GIVENNESS NOW to quit ‘The Price is Right’.

What do I have a GIVENNESS NOW to?

What’s right of the light.


“The darkness knows neither the light nor itself; only the light knows itself and the darkness also.  None but God hates evil and understands it.”  

George MacDonald, Lilith: A Romance

The delusion of the darkness.


…only the light knows itself and the darkness also.

I have a GIVENNESS NOW to what’s right of the light.