A New Kind of Youth Ministry

I try to begin each day by reading from the Scriptures or from another source that I know will direct me to reflect and meditate throughout the day. I try to keep the reading to a verse or a paragraph simply because I find it a bit more productive. Otherwise, I am all over the map trying to think on the reading. This morning I read from New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton. I couldn’t keep it just to one paragraph — I found his words too consuming.

Here is a bit of it…

“We read the Gospels not merely to get a picture or an idea of Christ but to enter in and pass through the words of revelation to establish, by faith, a vital contact with the Christ Who dwells in our souls as God.

The problem of forming Christ in us is not to be solved merely by our own efforts. It is not a matter of studying the Gospels and then working to put our ideas into practice, although we should try and do that too, but always under the guidance of grace, in complete subjection to the Holy Spirit.

For if we depend on our own ideas, our own judgments and our own efforts to reproduce the life of Christ, we will only act out some kind of pious charade which will ultimately scare everybody we meet because it will be so stiff and artificial and so dead.

It is the Spirit of God that must teach us Who is Christ and form Christ in us and transform us into other Christs. After all, transformation into Christ is not just an individual affair: there is only one Christ, not many. He is not divided. And for me to become Christ is to enter into the Life of the Whole Christ, the Mystical Body made up of the Head and the members, Christ and all who are incorporated in Him by His Spirit.”

Merton, Thomas. New Seeds of Contemplation (page 159-160)