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From: swifty@fluke.UUCP (steve swift)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Thomas Merton; comment on clothes.
Message-ID: <742@vax1.fluke.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 30-Sep-84 18:43:19 EDT
Article-I.D.: vax1.742
Posted: Sun Sep 30 18:43:19 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 4-Oct-84 03:23:55 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Everett, WA
Lines: 22



	"What a revelation it was, to discover so many ordinary people in a
place together, more conscious of God than of one another: not to show off
their hats or their clothes, but to pray, or at least to fulfill a religious
obligation, not a human one.  For even those who might have been there for no
better motive than that they were obliged to be, were at least free from any of
the self-conscious and human constraint which is never absent from a Protestant
church where people are definitely gathered together as people, as neighbors,
and always have at least half an eye for one another, if not all of both eyes."

			Thomas Merton, from "The Seven Storey Mountain"

We,as a community, are in the church building to worship God.  If the externals
of clothing and surroundings disturb us, then I suggest we examine our
relationship with God.  I, for one, welcome the chance to share with others, no
matter how they are dressed.
-- 
Steven Swift       (206) 356-5278
John Fluke Mfg. Co.
P.O. Box C9090  Everett WA  98206  
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