Thomas Merton's Prayer

[Trewolla]

With Christians taking so many directions on these forums, I thought it would be good to have Thomas Merton's Prayer posted.

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 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.

 

[Roosh]

May I ask why you are looking to him for spiritual guidance? He did not hide the fact that he was committing spiritual adultery with Buddhist ideas.

 

[Trewolla]

May I ask why you are looking to him for spiritual guidance? He did not hide the fact that he was committing spiritual adultery with Buddhist ideas.

I think Thomas Morton explored many things. His book, "Seven Story Mountain" explains his life very well. He never accepted Buddhism as a viable religion. But it seems that he was interested in men who devoted themselves to a contemplative life. Hence, his interest in the Dalai Lama and their friendship.

 

[Trewolla]

To elaborate just a bit more, I've found a lot in the quotes of Thomas Merton that parallels my own "later years" life. I'm not sure exactly when it started or why. But my later years have been spent in self imposed solitude and the absence of materialism beyond that materialism which will grant me my solitude. It happened before I ever heard about Thomas Merton. I'm not exactly like him or anybody else. But some things that spoke to him years ago have been spontaneously integrated into the way that I choose to currently live. I can't really explain why it happened. It just did. I was a bit surprised to learn that I wasn't the first.

I would have never considered a contemplative life as a young man. I was "of the world" in overdrive. But it the perspective I have today had hit me at age 25, I'm not sure how I would have reconciled it.

Solitude is a way to defend the spirit against the murderous din of our materialism.

--Thomas Merton