| Author Quoted | Max Picard |
| Title Quoted | Flight from God |
| Date (Year/Month/Day) | 1960/09/04 |
| Imprint | Washington D.C. : [s.n.]. 1951 |
| Quotation | The heart of Clement's book-that "fallen Tim" (le temps dechu) has no present. It is only the expression of an absence-the absence of God. Redeemed Time (le temps sauve) is concentrated in a "present moment" and born of the presence of God even in our own misery, in so far as our misery does not despair but falls into the abyss of Time, the Divine love, "une ouverture de l'humilite à la vie ressuscitee du Seigneur" ["an opening of humility to the risen life of the Lord"]. Tremendous content of this. Interesting content with French-somewhat existentialist. Very deep and true of Max Picard's Flight from God [Washington, D.C., 1951] (which is far less deep). Basis-this doctrine founded on remarkable spirituality of Sylvanus of Athos, d. 1938, who was told by Christ, "Hold thy spirit in hell and do not despair, for in condemning himself to hell and in thus destroying all passion, man liberates his heart to receive the divine love." |
| Quotation Source | Turning Toward the World: The Pivotal Years. The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 4, 1960-1963.; Edited by Victor A. Kramer. / San Francisco : Harper Collins. 1996, p. 42 |
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| Link to Merton's Copy |
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