Feast of the Transfiguration
Dn &:9-10,13-14, Psalm 97:1-9; 2Peter 1:16-19; Luke 9:28B-36

At the center of our being
is a point of nothingness
which is untouched
by sin and by illusion,
a point of pure truth,
a point or spark
which belongs entirely to God,
which is never at our disposal,
from which God
disposes of our lives,
which is inaccessible
to the fantasies
of our own mind
or the brutalities of our own will.
This little point of nothingness
and of absolute poverty
is the pure glory of God in us.
It is so to speak [God’s] name
written in us,
as our poverty,
as our indigence,
as our dependence,
as our sonship [and daughtership].
It is like a pure diamond,
blazing
with the invisible light
of heaven.
It is in everybody,
and if we could see it
we would see
these billions of points of light
coming together
in the face
and blaze of a sun
that would make all the darkness
and cruelty of life vanish completely . . . .
I have no program for this seeing.
It is only given.
But the gate of heaven is everywhere.

— From Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander 1968, page 158