“I believe my vocation is essentially that of a Pilgrim and an exile in life, that I have no proper place in the world, but that for that reason I am in some sense to be the friend and brother of people everywhere, especially those who are exiles and pilgrims like myself….My life is in many ways simple, but it is also a mystery which I do not attempt to really understand, as though I were led by the hand in the night where I see nothing, but can fully depend on the Love and Protection of Him who guides me.”

                                                Thomas Merton, Cold War Letters, 2006, p. 129-130.

Thomas Merton