The Candle That Burns Without Flickering

In the monastery chapel at Gethsemani, Thomas Merton once described a moment during night vigils when the wind howled against the Kentucky hills, rattling windows and bending trees to the ground. Yet inside the chapel, a single candle on the altar burned without flickering. Its flame held perfectly still, not because the storm had ceased, but because the walls of silence around it were deep enough to absorb every gust.…