
“To keep ourselves spiritually alive we must continually renew our faith. We are like pilots of fog-bound steamers, peering into the gloom in front of us, listening for the sounds of other ships, and we can only reach our harbor if we keep alert. The spiritual life is, then, first of all a matter of keeping awake. . . . always able to respond to the slightest warnings that speak, as though by a hidden by instinct, in the depth of the soul that is spiritually alive.” Thomas Merton