What matters is not the beauty of the glory of our saints, but the beauty of their glory as a crown of Christ the King. The note in the letter of St. John of the Cross to the sisters of Beas is beautiful: "… we will see what wealth you have gained from pure love on the path of eternal life and how excellent your progress is in Christ, whose brides are his delight and crown: and the crown is not meant to be cast on the ground, but to be taken by angels and seraphim in their hands and with reverence and awe placed upon the head of their Lord."
No one has ever written us, Trappists, such a letter.
(Thomas Merton /1915–1968/, diary entry from October 31, 1948)
