Prayer by Thomas Merton for Graduates

The following prayer by Thomas Merton is one that I like to give to graduates when they get anxious about moving on. It’s also a prayer I use myself when I am unsure if I’ve made the right decision. Currently I’m beginning the discernment process about whether or not I’m being called to the diaconate, so I expect to visit this prayer many times over the next few months:

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.