IHM: Reflective prayer 5

Virtual Discernment Retreat

Reflective prayer

Thomas Merton, a Cistercian monk and well-known spiritual writer, wrote this prayer that many discerners like you have found very helpful. In it he pours out his confusion and desire. I suggest you read it quietly and stop when what he says speaks to you personally.

"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 that 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

Do you identify at all with Merton's prayer?

Which phrase or sentence caught your attention?

Spend a few minutes with the last few lines of Merton's prayer. Perhaps you may want to take some of these words as a mantra, a short easy-to-remember prayer that can just weave effortlessly through your day.

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