There is in all things an inexhaustible sweetness and purity,
a silence that is a fount of action and joy. It rises up in wordless gentleness and flows out to me
from the unseen roots of all created being,
welcoming me tenderly,
saluting me with indescribable humility.
This is at once my own being, my own nature,
and the Gift of my Creator's Thought and Art within me,
speaking as Hagia Sophia,
speaking as my sister, Wisdom.
Thomas Merton, The Collected Poems of Thomas Merton