Trappist monk Thomas Merton, who spent more than twenty-five years of his life in a Kentucky monastery, writing and teaching. Merton struggled to discover God’s will. He captures his struggle in this prayer:
Let us pray: My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me, and 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, I will trust in 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. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. [Thoughts in Solitude, 1958]
The Rev. Ellen Meissgeier