For example, that to love God is to care about creation, humanity, and the big questions of justice, peace and compassion for the world. That the energising source of such gospel activism is contemplative prayer, and reflective silence before the Word. These, he repeatedly teaches, require costly availability and humble receptivity to the grace that comes from God, and a desire to live in such a way that Christ is visibly evident in who and what we are.
Here is Merton the monk, teaching an evangelical activist like me the first and foremost importance of love for God:
"But in all these things, it is the will to pray that is the essence of prayer, and the desire to find God, to see Him and to love Him is the one thing that matters. If you have desired to know Him and love Him, you have already done what is expected of you, and it is much better to desire God without being able to think clearly of Him, than to have marvellous thoughts about Him without desiring to enter into union with His will."
(New Seeds of Contemplation, p.227)
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