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Michael_Mayo
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I recalled that Thomas Merton was once a nonbeliever so I found an old copy of Seven Story Mountain to see what it was the brought about his conversion:
In section vi
I was fascinated by these Byzantine mosaics. I began to haunt the
churches where they were to be found, and, as an indirect consequence,
all the other churches that were more or less of the same period. And
thus without knowing anything about it I became a pilgrim. I was unconsciously
and unintentionally visiting all the great shrines of Rome,
and seeking out their sanctuaries with some of the eagerness and avidity
and desire of a true pilgrim, though not quite for the right reason.
And yet it was not for a wrong reason either. For these mosaics and frescoes
and all the ancient altars and thrones and sanctuaries were designed
and built for the instruction of people who were not capable of
immediately understanding anything higher.
And now for the first time in my life I began to find out something
of Who this Person was that men called Christ. It was obscure, but it
was a true knowledge of Him, in some sense, truer than I knew and
truer than I would admit. But it was in Rome that my conception of
Christ was formed. It was there I first saw Him, Whom I now serve as
my God and my King, and Who owns and rules my life.
These mosaics told me more than I had ever known of the doctrine of a God of infinite power, wisdom, and love Who had yet become Man, and revealed in His Manhood the infinity of power, wisdom and love that was His Godhead. Of course I could not grasp and believe these things explicitly. But since they were implicit in every line of the pictures I contemplated with such admiration and love, surely I grasped them implicitly-I had to, in so far as the mind of the artist reached IT1Y own mind, and spoke to it his conception and his thought. And so I could not help but catch something of the ancient craftsman’s love of Christ, the Redeemer and Judge of the World.
It was more or less natural that I should want to discover something of the meaning of the mosaics I saw-of the Lamb standing as though slain, and of the four-and-twenty elders casting down their crowns. And I had bought a Vulgate text, and was reading the New Testament.
I was in my room. It was night. The light was on. Suddenly it seemed to me that Father, who had now been dead more than a year, was there with me. The sense of his presence was as vivid and as real and as startling as if he had touched my arm or spoken to me. The whole thing passed in a flash, but in that flash, instantly, I was overwhelmed with a sudden and profound insight into the misery and corruption of my own soul, and I was pierced deeply with a light that made me realize something of the condition I was in, and I was filled with horror at what I saw, and my whole being rose up in revolt against what was within me, and my soul desired escape and liberation and freedom from all this with an intensity and an urgency unlike anything I had ever known before. And now I think for the first time in my whole life I really began to pray-praying not with my lips and with my intellect and my imagination, but praying out of the very roots of my life and of my being, and praying to the God I had never known, to reach down towards me out of His darkness and to help me to get free of the thousand terrible things that held my will in their slavery.
All we can do is be good examples and God does the rest.
In section vi
I was fascinated by these Byzantine mosaics. I began to haunt the
churches where they were to be found, and, as an indirect consequence,
all the other churches that were more or less of the same period. And
thus without knowing anything about it I became a pilgrim. I was unconsciously
and unintentionally visiting all the great shrines of Rome,
and seeking out their sanctuaries with some of the eagerness and avidity
and desire of a true pilgrim, though not quite for the right reason.
And yet it was not for a wrong reason either. For these mosaics and frescoes
and all the ancient altars and thrones and sanctuaries were designed
and built for the instruction of people who were not capable of
immediately understanding anything higher.
And now for the first time in my life I began to find out something
of Who this Person was that men called Christ. It was obscure, but it
was a true knowledge of Him, in some sense, truer than I knew and
truer than I would admit. But it was in Rome that my conception of
Christ was formed. It was there I first saw Him, Whom I now serve as
my God and my King, and Who owns and rules my life.
These mosaics told me more than I had ever known of the doctrine of a God of infinite power, wisdom, and love Who had yet become Man, and revealed in His Manhood the infinity of power, wisdom and love that was His Godhead. Of course I could not grasp and believe these things explicitly. But since they were implicit in every line of the pictures I contemplated with such admiration and love, surely I grasped them implicitly-I had to, in so far as the mind of the artist reached IT1Y own mind, and spoke to it his conception and his thought. And so I could not help but catch something of the ancient craftsman’s love of Christ, the Redeemer and Judge of the World.
It was more or less natural that I should want to discover something of the meaning of the mosaics I saw-of the Lamb standing as though slain, and of the four-and-twenty elders casting down their crowns. And I had bought a Vulgate text, and was reading the New Testament.
I was in my room. It was night. The light was on. Suddenly it seemed to me that Father, who had now been dead more than a year, was there with me. The sense of his presence was as vivid and as real and as startling as if he had touched my arm or spoken to me. The whole thing passed in a flash, but in that flash, instantly, I was overwhelmed with a sudden and profound insight into the misery and corruption of my own soul, and I was pierced deeply with a light that made me realize something of the condition I was in, and I was filled with horror at what I saw, and my whole being rose up in revolt against what was within me, and my soul desired escape and liberation and freedom from all this with an intensity and an urgency unlike anything I had ever known before. And now I think for the first time in my whole life I really began to pray-praying not with my lips and with my intellect and my imagination, but praying out of the very roots of my life and of my being, and praying to the God I had never known, to reach down towards me out of His darkness and to help me to get free of the thousand terrible things that held my will in their slavery.
All we can do is be good examples and God does the rest.
S
santiagoamr
Guest
Poke their Ego, show them their ignorance with Philosophy and other sciences like Physics. This worked for me and made me realise that the ones that preach to know science, actually know nothing about it. But I believe the best course of action is to make them envious or wanting of your life through example, and the occasional good nurtured and patient talk.
S
santiagoamr
Guest
1.- In my experience, Atheists don’t do Logic, they do not know how, and in many cases it is not only ignorance, but repudiation of Logic, and this is where it really becomes frustrating, because they talk about Philosophy and many memorise a lot of data, even definitions of concepts that they clearly do not understand, and you can see why it gets frustrating trying to explain a concept to someone that knows the definition, but does not process it (understands). Atheists are really good at applied sciences, but they lack that push than many people feel to actually understand beyond the normal scope, that flash that makes you analyse and hypothesise, prove and disprove. And all this is funny because Atheists really believe that all people who believe in God are ignorant of Science, when they do not know what Science is in the first place. Few Atheists have made a challenge worth pursuing, because you can actually debate, propose and analyse together and separately, which enriches your understanding, but those cases have been few in my short lived experience. I haven’t tried to evangelise an Atheist or anyone for that matter in a long time now, I have come to believe that Faith is not about knowledge, but about God and what He wants. God gives Faith and that Faith can be benefitted by knowledge but Knowledge and belief will never amount to Faith, that is something that emanates from God, and God gives it at will.The issue you face with this is:
- Atheists are usually purely logical
- Religion is usually based purely in emotion.
2.- This point is true for many people, for me It did not mean anything and it rarely has, I’ve had three experiences in my life that I would never deny that were moments of inspiration, but the emotional part lasted very little, a few days at the most. I also hada moment that was less emotional than I thought or imagined would have been, except for the liberating part that I still feel, and that was when I finally received what I know to be Faith. For me it was more a Philosophical battle that lasted for years! When I believed in God I didn’t feel anything except pride of knowledge. Then I began my way in to Christianity and then back in to the Church, but It took too long and was mostly because I wanted debates and wanted to dominate the room with knowledge and to show people how Ignorant they were. I was the ignorant one, still, that is something I now know. But emotions common with religions is something that to me it never amounted to anything I used to brag how my “faith” was grounded on knowledge and not God, like it really is.
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