“In so far as men are prepared to prefer their own will to God’s will, they can be said to hate God: for of course they cannot hate Him in Himself. But they hate Him in the Commandments which they violate. But God is our life: God’s will is our food, our meat, our life’s bread.”

—  Thomas Merton, book The Seven Storey Mountain

Source: The Seven Storey Mountain (1948), p. 252

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Priest and author 1915–1968

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