Anguish

Merton, Thomas. _The New Man._ Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1961, pg. 113,
114.

"The inner recesses of our conscience, where the image of God is branded
in the very depths of our being, ceaselessly remind us that we are born for
a higher freedom and for a far more spiritual fulfillment. Although there
is no "natural" bridge between the natural and the supernatural, the
concrete situation in which man finds himself, as a nature created for a
supernatural end, makes anguish inevitable. He cannot rest unless he rests
in God: not merely the God of nature, but the Living God, not the God that
can be objectified in a few abstract notions, but the God Who is above all
concept. Not the God of a mere notional or moral union, but the God Who
becomes One Spirit with our own soul! This alone is the reality for which
we are made. Here alone do we finally "find ourselves" - not in our natural
selves but out of ourselves in God. For our destiny is to be infinitely
greater than our own poor selves: "I said: Your are gods, all of you sons of
the Most High." [Psalm 81:6.]

The spiritual anguish of man has no cure but mysticism."