Thomas Merton’s Prayer
A friend wrote the following in a note to me recently. It is a prayer by a Trappist Monk named Thomas Merton. I'd heard of him before, but this is the first of his writings I've ever knowingly seen. It's good … and I'm going to have quite an experience unpacking its profundity over the next year.
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 that 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 will I 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.
- Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude
I love this prayer. It is especially powerful for where I find myself these days.
Who is this Thomas Merton? I like the way he prays! Right to the point, eh?
btw, my first question was rhetorical, so you don’t need to give me a brief history of him or anything.
erin