Tuesday, December 4, 2007

The Way In is the Way Out






















THE ROAD AHEAD
by Thomas Merton

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 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 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 you always
though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will fear not, for you are with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

4 comments:

Jim Chen said...

Come by Louisville sometime, Marie, and I'll take you to the corner of Fourth and Muhammad Ali (formerly Walnut), the very place Thomas Merton had his first great revelation.

Marie T. Reilly said...

Thomas Merton's prayer is the response to http://jurisdynamics.blogspot.com/2007/12/kiss-is-just-kiss.html.

Kelly Joy said...

Thank you for this.

Jim Chen said...

Thanks, Marie. I'm commenting again to provide the complete link to my excerpt from All the King's Men. And I'll take the opportunity to include a new but not altogether unrelated link to an item called Inmaculada.