The past three weeks have been mentally challenging for me, and I find the need to clear my mind and sort things out. Therefore, I will be departing on a personal week-long retreat to spend some time with the Lord. I need to spend some time in prayer, silence and solitude. I will resume my writings here upon my return.
I ask you to keep me in your prayers this week. Please pray that I am able to listen to the what the Spirit needs to tell me; that I have the patience to hear the words spoken to me, the courage to act on those words, and the strength to make those words come to life through my actions.
Below is a prayer that I pray often. I hope that it helps you as much as it helps me.
Thomas Merton’s Prayer of Abandonment
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.
~Thomas Merton, “Thoughts in Solitude”
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