Hope in His love

We can either love God because we hope for something from Him, or we can hope in Him knowing that He loves us.  Sometimes we begin with the first kind of hope and grow into the second.  In that case, hope and charity (love) work together as close partners, and both rest in God.  Then every act of hope may open the door to contemplation, for such hope is its own fulfillment.

Better than hoping for anything from the Lord, besides His love, let us place all our hope in His love itself.  This hope is as sure as God Himself.  It can never be confounded.  It is more than a promise of its own fulfillment.  It is an effect of the very love it hopes for.  It seeks charity because it has already found charity.  It seeks God knowing that it knowing that it has already been found by Him.  It travels to Heaven realizing obscurely that it has already arrived.

Thomas Merton

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