Thomas Merton

"I cannot discover God in myself and myself in Him unless I have the courage to face myself as I am, with all my limitations, and others as they are, with all their limitations."

seeing myself as you see me. 
only possible when we know that you still love us despite all of those limitations.

but actually it isn't a question of  "despite" but "with".
so . . . .
only possible when we know that you still love us with all of those limitations. 

it's still wrong because . . .
you love us with all our limitations. 
Therein lies the fundamental problem: 
failing to accept our own limitations we will almost certainly fail to accept those of others.
knowing that you love us anyway is the only way we are pulled out of this cycle. 

Both office and mass were particularly meaningful today. 

I change the words a lot in both. A lot of the grumbling psalms are presently about and for the suffering people of Gaza and the West Bank. 

Today is the feast of St Teresa and there was a very lovely reading from her "way" in the office of readings. Familiar and loving. Always this idea of God as "Your majesty" which smacks of Spanish absolutism to be sure but somehow twisted rather nicely. 

The mass reading too. Abraham sends away Hagar the maid and her son who she tries to abandon but can't! God is there yes - in her actions.