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."





He was an astounding insightful writer. He rejected "spiritualism" to find God.

Wise words. Thank you sister Angelfire. Which of his books do you recommend. Hope all is well.

You should always start with the Seven Story Mountain.
His descriptions of loneliness and darkness are as poignant as St. Augustine Confessions... There is this realizations that you are the barrier between God and you and then the complete shame




of what that kind of awareness means. If we start there with either one's writings respectively Merton's Seven Story Mountain, and St. Augustine's Confessions, you can literally see, an affecting  illustration of what changed them both into saints.




You see the ordinary in them and their suffering as they search.. and it's as real as our everyday lives.  God chooses the most unlikely people.








Merton said: "When a man is conceived, when a human is brought into being a concrete subsisting thing, ...the God's image is minted into the world"

Think about that for a second... and then contemplate everything you know about God and what Christ did.








 

Many Thanks

Funny timing.  I actually mentioned this prayer to a Mormon friend today.  I love this prayer.

 

Is the above quote from Seven Story Mountain?

Would it mean anything different to a Mormon than to anyone else?

I really don't know.  I wouldn't think so.

Wonderful Merton prayer, Sister, and you insights are amazing--truly amazing. Thank you!

I've yet to read most of his works, but the one that "grabbed and held me" as a Merton-lover was his essay, "The Rain and the Rhinoceros." It was truly incredible, since I took the essay along with me  to our cabin deep in the woods where I alone spent the night. A rain storm brewed up and the drum roll of the rain on the cabin's standing seam metal roof was Merton's essay literally come-to-life! I'll never forget it....

Excerpt--Rain and the Rhinoceros

It's from Thoughts In Solitude.



But this gem is from Seven Story Mountain:

"Souls are like athletes, that need opponents worthy of them, if they
are to be tried and extended and pushed to the full use of their powers,
and rewarded according to their capacity.”
 

 





I am delving into some of his journals.





 

You can't go wrong reading Merton, Augustine, and Henri Nouwen.



 

I will put these on my list of "to reads". Thank you Sister Angelfire and I hope you and Brother BNA are doing well.