A Prayer by Thomas Merton

One of my favorite spiritual writers is Thomas Merton, and one of my favorite prayers comes from his book Thoughts in Solitude:

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 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 that 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.

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What Does God Want?

What Does God Want? by Fr. Michael ScanlonI hate making decisions. Well, that’s not exactly true. I hate making bad decisions. Why can’t God just reach down from heaven, place a huge index finger on the newspaper and say, “THAT ONE…PICK THE ONE WITH CENTRAL AIR CONDITIONING”? He told Mother Teresa to found an order of nuns to serve the poorest of the poor, why can’t he tell us what he wants us to do with our lives?

Well, it turns out he does tell us. It’s just that he uses God-speak, that mysterious language that we mortals have to decipher. And one of the best ways to decipher God-speak is to follow the advice given by Fr. Michael Scanlon in his little book, What Does God Want? A Practical Guide to Making Decisions. It’s amazing how much practical wisdom Fr. Scanlon can pack into 127 pages.

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