The Merton 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, 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.

Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude (Farrar, Straus, Giroux Pub­lishing, 1956, 1958, 2009) p. 79. Used with permission.