Reflection selection from Thomas Merton by Deacon Steve
The first thing we must do when we recognize the presence of God’s grace in our hearts is to desire more charity. The desire for love is itself a beginning of love, and from the moment we desire more we already have more: and our desire is itself the pledge of even more to come. This is because an efficacious desire to love God makes us turn away from everything that is opposed to God’s will.
It is by desiring to grow in love that we receive the Holy Spirit, and the thirst for more charity is the effect of this more abundant reception.
The desire for charity is more than a blind hunger of the soul (although in certain circumstances it is very blind and very much of a hunger). It is clear sighted in the sense that the intelligence enlightened by the Holy Spirit turns to the Father and asks for an increase of love in the name of the Son. That is to say that the desire for charity in a mature Christian soul is a lucid, deep, peaceful, active, and supremely fruitful knowledge of the Holy Trinity.
Thomas Merton, “No Man is an Island” p. 180