Thomas Merton was a Trappist monk who lived a great deal of his life in Kentucky at the Abbey of Gethsemani (they make excellent bourbon walnut fruitcakes there by the way). Merton, originally from France, would have been 101 years old today (January 31st). I highly recommend to you his autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain. His writings have changed the lives of many people through the years.
In our worship service, I will be including one of his prayers for us to use in our own personal and corporate devotion to God, the text of which is reprinted below for you to pray at other times this week, if you so choose:
“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.”
May his prayer be our prayer today, and may the peace of Christ be with you all.
Curtis+