I was reading and praying tonight and came across this prayer by Thomas Merton. I was moved by his words. I need to pray his prayer: “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 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 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.” (from “Thoughts in Solitude” p. 89).
1 comment:
Merton says,
"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."
Curiously, Merton doesn't say that he does desire to please God but instead that "I hope I have that desire." I wonder if he thought that even he didn't know his own desires?
I believe that I don't always desire to please God, although I have faith that I desire to desire to always please God. I want to always desire his will at each moment. I think Aquinas speculated that it is these second order desires that begin at justification and that the first order desires are realized in the santifying process towards perfection.
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