Yet more Merton ...

“If the salvation of society depends, in the long run, on the moral and spiritual health of individuals, the subject of contemplation becomes a vastly important one, since contemplation is one of the indications of spiritual maturity. It is closely allied to sanctity. You cannot save the world merely with a system. You cannot have peace without charity. You cannot have social order without saints, mystics, and prophets.”

From A Thomas Merton Reader edited by Thomas P. McDonnell. Image Books,

A Division of Doubleday @ Company, Inc. Garden City, NY. 1974 Page 375.