Reflections and Scripture Related to Shadow Work

Reflections and Scriptures Related to Shadow Work

“In order to find God in ourselves, we must stop looking at ourselves, stop checking and verifying ourselves in the mirror of our own futility, and be content to be in Him and to do whatever He wills, according to our limitations, judging our acts not in the light of our own illusions, but in the light of His reality which is all around us in the things and people we live with.”

Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island

“All seek peace first of all with themselves. That is necessary, because we do not naturally find rest even in our own being. We have to learn to commune with ourselves before we can communicate with other men and with God. A person who is not at peace with himself necessarily projects his interior fighting into the society of those he lives with, and spreads a contagion of conflict all around him. Even when he tried to do good to others, his efforts are hopeless, since he does not know how to do good himself.”

Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island

Luke 6:41 We are Hypocrites, Naturally; So Be the Change You Want to See in Others

“Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, 'Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye.” Jesus of Nazareth

Luke 11:24-26 The Danger in Willful Repression of the Shadow

"When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless places seeking rest; and finding none he says, `I will return to my house from which I came.'
And when he comes he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first." Jesus of Nazareth

Luke 6:37 Avoid Judging; Forgive and Be Forgiven

"Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned.” Jesus of Nazareth

Luke 11:34 The Light of a Person is in their Looking

“When the eye is full of light, so one’s whole being is filled with light… But when one’s eye is dark, so too one’s whole being is filled with darkness.” Jesus of Nazareth