?[Repentance] must be done by the work of God, the work of grace. It is a divine gift. But if the gift be rare, it is not because of any [stinginess] on the part of an infinitely liberal God. It is because of our fear, our blindness, our ignorance, our hatred of risk. For after all, in order to make this leap out of ourselves we have to be willing to let go of everything that is our own?all our own plans, all our own hesitations, all our own judgments. That does not mean that we give up thinking and acting: but that we are ready for any change that God?s action may make in our lives.? (Thomas Merton. The New Man. New York: The Noonday Press, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1961, p. 126-127)
To what degree do you see repentance as something you make happen for God, or as a gift from God you can wholeheartedly receive from Him?
