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January 31
David Barnhart
January 31, 2025
Iona, 2011. Own photo.
Today marks the birthday, in 1915, of Thomas Merton. Merton was a mystic Trappist monk and author, and has inspired generations of Christians seeking peace and justice. He was also a friend of Thich Nhat Hanh, and the Christianity and Buddhism of each influenced the other.
Today is also the feast day of Marcella of Rome, who died in 410 at the hand of Visigoth invaders. As a wealthy widow she opened her home to the church community, and it became a sanctuary for pilgrims. Saint Jerome (who translated the Bible into Latin) stayed with her, and they became friends. She continued to help priests in Rome interpret the Bible for many years.
Today is also the feast day, in the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, of John Bosco, in 1888. Bosco was a forward-thinking priest and educator who believed children learn best with positive attention, play, and love instead of punishment and strict discipline. His major ministry was educating and caring for street children.
On January 31, 1865, the United States Congress passed the 13th Amendment. Though it technically abolished chattel slavery, the language enshrines de facto slavery as punishment for crime in the Constitution, which is how the United States continues to imprison people for profit. Modern abolitionists call for the Amendment to be changed to abolish slavery once and for all. (See The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander).
Reflection:
Thomas Merton was a prolific writer. Among many other gems, he wrote the following excellent advice for these times:
Do not depend on the hope of results. You may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results, but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself. You gradually struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people. In the end, it is the reality of personal relationship that saves everything.
And I believe his words are the best prayer to offer today:
Prayer:
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.