Merton Monday: Thoughts on poverty from ‘Seeds of Contemplation’

“It is easy enough to tell the poor to accept their poverty as God’s will when you yourself have warm clothes and plenty of food and medical care and a roof over your head and no worry about the rent. But if you want them to believe you, try to share some of their poverty, and see if you can accept it as God’s will yourself.”

-Thomas Merton
From “Seeds of Contemplation”, chapter 14, p.107 (1949).