HIS GREATNESS MERTON AT HIS KENTUCKY HERMITAGE,
“In our age everything has to be a ‘problem.’ Ours is a time of anxiety because we have willed it to be so. Our anxiety is not imposed on us by force from outside. We impose it on our world and upon one another from within ourselves.”
— Thomas Merton
“MY LORD GOD, I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE I AM GOING. . . “
The Merton Prayer
In Thoughts in Solitude, Part Two, Chapter II consists of fifteen lines that have become known as “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 I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
I DO NOT SEE THE ROAD AHEAD OF ME
“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.
“YOU WILL LEAD ME BY THE RIGHT ROAD”
“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”
© Abbey of Gethsemani
Wonderful. I had never read this prayer by Merton before. I agree with Alice when she says “it speaks of ultimate trust and faith that we are always meant to be in God’s Presence.” Thanks for sharing.
BE ENCOURAGED! BE BLESSED!
It’s a powerful prayer, Francine, and so much like a Psalm with so many elements–disorientation, confession, humility, vulnerability, abandonment and surrender, hope, trust. Blessings.
[...] Fathers Meditating on Words from MertonAugust 4, 2012 By Frederick Schmidt Leave a CommentMy friend Paul McKay posted these words from Thomas Merton and I’ve been meditating on them ever since:In our age [...]
Thanks for sharing this Rev. McKay
I would be interested to hear what you and your readers think of a similarly themed article I just had published at Elephant Journal.
“The Lost Art of Being Alone with God”
http://elephantjournal.com/2012/08/the-lost-art-of-being-alone-with-god/
bit.ly/Qy1cm4
Thanks, Chris. Good article and good overview of Merton’s thought on this stuff. So you’re enrolled at Union? A great place for sure.
Thank you Rev. McKay
I’m very much looking forward to starting at Union in a few weeks.
I hope I have your blessings for a powerful experience there.
So true, Allice, it’s a scary thing to let go and “surrender all.” I too find that the prayer speaks to me in different ways sometimes, that I react differently. I have shared it with a lot of people over the years in my ministry and it always resonates with them somehow.