A Great Prayer By Thomas Merton

Catching up on the Blog Posts I missed this week out in the ether of the net is becoming a consuming affair today.

There are so many Catholic Authors, Saints, Church Fathers, that have so much to say it would take a 1000 lifetmes to read them all. I suppose the deep well of Catholicism is what sort of attracted me in the first place. One of those authors I have never engaged is the famous 20th Century American Monk Thomas Merton.

I have mention before Bryan Sherwood's blog. He was raised in a Baptist tradition and is now an Anglican. He is also big into the Divine Office and the Monastic way of life. You can be that way and married too like he is. In fact I believe he is a lay Cistercian. How I sometimes wished I lived near a Abbey.
Anyway I like his blog because it seems that he and I often are going through the same highs, lows and struggles. He mention Thomas Merton speaks to him like no other. SO perhaps I should pick him up. I was really taken by this prayer of Thomas Merton that he posted a few days ago here. Go to his link and get his thoughts. I shall excerpt it here.

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.