Sacred Heart 13

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.

Thomas Merton (1915 -1968), was an American Trappist monk, theologian, mystic, poet and social activist. He wrote more than 50 books on spirituality, social justice and pacificism, including his biography, The Seven Story Mountain.

When I read this prayer I do not imagine stained glass windows or picture a sinner lying prostrate before an altar. I do not smell incense or hear chanting voices echoing through vaulted ceilings. It is not written with the flowery and pious language of religion, but with the language of the fallible human soul.

Simple in presentation and emotion, it is a prayer of Everyman who finds themselves on an unknown road leading to an unknowable destination. Deaf, dumb, blind, sometimes we struggle in our lives, and our best comfort is in knowing we are not alone. The good shepherd never leaves his sheep behind.