Thomas Merton

His journey to faith in Christ was circuitous.  While Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was baptized in the Church of England, he had little religious upbringing.  He lived a wild and reckless life in New York City.  During his early years at Columbia University, he considered himself agnostic.  At the urging of a friend, Thomas read Augustine’s Confessions and Thomas a Kempis’ Imitation of Christ.  He began to pray, received instruction in the Catholic church and was baptized.  He was rejected for candidacy as a Franciscan monk for having fathered a child out of wedlock and eventually joined a strict order of Trappist monks in rural Kentucky. You can learn about more about his conversion in his autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain. His book brought him considerable fame and attention, which troubled some of his superiors in the monastic order.  Uncharacteristic for a mystic, he wrote sixty books during his lifetime.
Today’s prayer holds a special place in my life. I came upon it during a time when there were several vexing problems in the church and some people were acting, how shall I say this, like jerks. This prayer is contained in a collection of Thomas’ writings and prayers titled Thoughts in Solitude.  He begins his prayer with words that draw me in, “Lord, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me.”  While he expresses uncertainty about doing God’s will, he rests in the confidence “that the desire to please you does, in fact, please you” and closes with the assurance, “You will never leave me to face my perils alone.”