“What Merton does, in terms of knowing and knowledge, is to capture anew a quality of knowing alien to our modern and Western consciousness, one that reflects an integral relationship between mind and heart, between lived inner experience and insight, between intellect and intuition, and between understanding and being. This way of knowing seems an important, if not necessary basis for growth in wisdom and contemplative awareness.”
– Thomas Del Prete

How did you know that?

It was a question my sons asked me often, continually surprised at how I knew things they had worked hard at hiding from me.

“Moms know everything,” was my pat answer, and for the most part, when mothers give credence to their intuition, they discover they are aware of more than they, or anyone else, thinks they are.

In addition to intuition, I often found that information just fell into my lap when I most needed it – like the hospital bill that inadvertently came to my home for one of my sons who had been injured while at college.

He gave the hospital his school address, but the bill came to me none-the-less. During my 35 years of parenting there have been innumerable chance encounters, unexpected phone calls, or remnants of nights out left behind in my car, all keeping me posted on what my sons were up to.

I like to attribute those fortuitous occurrences to a guardian angel who is always on her toes!

I believe all of us are born with an intuitive sense. For some, it is a powerful faculty that can be both a gift and a challenge. For others, the sense gets lost amid the noise of the world, or the rational mind takes precedence and buries intuition.

Fortunately, for me, my father was a firm believer in the power of intuition and the subconscious mind, and he nurtured the tools that would allow me to develop my intuitive sense. Most importantly, he encouraged me to embrace silence, to develop inner calm and focus, and to live in the moment. The process has been a fruitful one, but certainly one filled with challenges. High on the list is the tendency of human nature to be lazy, to be critical of oneself and others, and to run from truth when it is difficult to face.

Intuition has been defined in many ways. Our contemporary culture often speaks of it as a hunch, a feeling, a sense of direction for decision making, or a moment of insight.

On a more profound level, intuition is considered an awareness of being; an intuitive, interior knowledge of God.

Down through the ages, the theme of intuition has been a thread running though the thoughts of philosophers and theologians as they waxed eloquently about God, faith, mysticism, human nature and existence. However, the language of the debate could set one’s head spinning, though it’s not surprising with theological giants like St. Thomas Aquinas in the mix.

For the rest of us, though our language may take a simpler form, there remains our personal experience that there is more to life than meets the eye, that truth exists more in what we can’t see than in what we can, and that our God is the source of our being.

As we enter into another new year, it would be interesting to consider ourselves among the students of Thomas Merton; monk, mystic and teacher who encouraged the development of intuition as a means for students to come to a fuller awareness of their existence and of their being grounded in the being of God.

We may also benefit from the observation of scientist Albert Einstein who said, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

With some resolution, this year could be different.

Mary Morrell is a freelance writer and editor based in Ortley Beach and Colonia. She blogs at http://wellspringcommunications.typepad.com/god-talk-and-tea