The Community is My Mother

Today is Thanksgiving Day, and Merton's reflection is full of gratitude for his relationship to Mary, the Mother of God, for her nurture of Merton's solitude and prayerful life.  He claims that he will stop asking questions and relinquish his life to her care.  But, I think the point of having to continuously "keep finding it out over and over again," is the central tenet of a life of faith.  Every day confronts us with a new day, a new opportunity to surrender to mystery, to paradox, to doubt, to faith, like waves piling up on a beach, an endless cycle of movement, natural and full of grace in themselves.  The action of the Existence of the world on our consciousness forms and shapes us.  The waves can be furious or gentle, and either action takes away or leaves treasures on the shore of our lives.
Today the action seems gentle, and I am content to stroll along my beach and observe the smallest shell or the sunset on a wet patch of sand.  Attention, that is the thing today.
In the orphanage in Westpollard, the Little Sisters of Charity provided for me, and now I work for the Dominican Congregation of Sisters.  My true mothers have always been holy women.