On the Threshold of Despair

“Only the man who has had to face despair is really convinced that he needs mercy. Those who do not want mercy never seek it. It is better to find God on the threshold of despair than to risk our lives in a complacency that has never felt the need of forgiveness. A life that is without problems may literally be more hopeless than one that always verges on despair.” -Thomas Merton.

Image: Pissarro, Camille. Orchard in Bloom, Louveciennes. 1872. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C.

Works Cited: Merton, Thomas. “Sentences on Hope.” No Man Is an Island, Fall River Press, New York, 2003, pp. 21–22.