Merton's 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 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"© Abbey of Gethsemani

As I contemplate my vocation, I find myself going back, more and more, to this prayer. I even have it taped to my monitor for quick reference. Really. Although I have a more personal vocational prayer(I'll get to posting that soon) that I pray once or twice a day, the words of Fr. Louis inspire me to keep my eyes on Christ and let my doubts die as they may.

It's about letting go and letting the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit work on you. It's about surrendering your will to Christ, trusting in His plan and living for "God alone". It's a about being open to God's call in our lives, as St. Benedict states at the beginning of his Rule,"Listen, O my son, to the precepts of thy master, and incline the ear of thy heart, and cheerfully receive and faithfully execute the admonitions of thy loving Father, that by the toil of obedience thou mayest return to Him from whom by the sloth of disobedience thou hast gone away."

No matter where this path may take me as, a parish priest, a cloistered monk, or a devout member of the laity, my life is in His Hands and I shall follow where He leads. In the end, it all comes down to having the faith to trust that only through surrendering to His love and will, can we truly live. Anything else is an illusion and a lie propagated by the enemy.