Thomas Merton’s Prayer

I highly recommend anything written by Thomas Merton. I will do a full post on him later, but he was a Trappist Monk in the ’60’s who was a major voice in the anti-war and civil-rights movements. In addition, he was a prolific writer and very much a contemplative mystic. In his book Thoughts in Solitude, he penned this prayer.

MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

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