The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

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Author QuotedBrice Parain
Title QuotedMort de Jean Madec
Date (Year/Month/Day)1950/01/30
ImprintParis : Grasset. 1945
QuotationThe Greeks say that interior silence is not perfect unless it is centered upon the Name of Jesus. For they do not love silence for its own sake. Silence for its own sake is only death. Love silence for the sake of the Word. There are surprising affinities in the theology of the Oriental Church with the thoughts in Jean Madec. They understand that there is a solitude that is death and a solitude that is life. The solitary who is dead is walled up in his own self. The solitary who lives is eternally delivered from this world and is present to God.
Quotation SourceEntering the Silence: Becoming a Monk and Writer. The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 2, 1941-1952.; Edited by Jonathan Montaldo. / San Francisco : Harper Collins. 1996, p. 404
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