Contemplation and Conflict

The Wisdom of the Desert

I simply love this story of two desert fathers, which Thomas Merton recounts in his book The Wisdom of the Desert:

There were two elders living together in a cell, and they had never had so much as one quarrel with one another. One therefore said to the other: Come on, let us have at least one quarrel, like other men. The other said: I don’t know how to start a quarrel. The first said: I will take this brick and place it here between us. Then I will say: It is mine. A...