Descent into Nothingness

"Descent into nothingness and dependence on God.  Otherwise I am just fighting the world with its own weapons and there the world is unbeatable...for I will exhaust myself and that will be the end of my stupid efforts.  To seek strength in God, esp. the Passion of the Christ (added:  to suffer, to become nothing, to bear your cross).  An image is presented and then taken away from man (and restored if man follows into the night).  But descend into the Night of the Passion, the Night of Christ's death, baptism in His sufferings, without image." 

--Thomas Merton, (via L. Marten email 12/22/09)

Here is the verse I shared with my family at Christmas when we were each asked to share a particularly meaningful thought for the year:  (not a great year for me...)

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.  Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong."  --2 Corinthians 12:9-10