I want to invite you to pray the Merton prayer with me.
Thomas Merton,
The great Catholic teacher and mystic,
He wrote this simply as notes to himself.
This was in a book that has been taken and made into this calling for being in the unknown.
For times when you are facing uncertainty,
When you can't see what is next,
This is a great prayer to recite,
To remember,
To bring comfort,
And to bring a deep surrender and trust that God has us,
That God is carrying us no matter what.
And you could say that there's always times of uncertainty that we never quite know the road ahead of us.
And so I hope this prayer helps give you some of that faith and that comfort for whatever you might be going through.
And so let's go ahead and close our eyes.
And start to come into your body.
And take a full breath into your belly.
And as you let it go,
Let every muscle in your body start to relax.
And finding a space of groundedness.
And of receptivity.
This is a prayer.
For moving through uncertainty but it's also in my eyes a prayer for receiving guidance,
Receiving the the next instruction.
And where.
We would be best of use where?
We should be stepping forward into.
And so the way that I'm going to do this is I'm going to.
.
.
Share the prayer once.
If you know it,
You're welcome to repeat it out loud with me.
Or just let the words connect to you.
And then afterwards,
We're gonna slow down and I'm gonna repeat each line of the prayer and have you repeat it on your own.
And so you can be in prayer hands,
You can have your palms open,
You can have your arms relaxed,
Whatever feels good and true for you right now.
My Lord God.
I have no idea.
Where I'm going.
I cannot 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 that I have that desire.
In all that I am doing.
I hope I.
.
.
Don't do anything apart from that desire.
And if I do this,
I know that you will lead me by the right road.
Even 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 will never leave me.
You are always with me.
And you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
So noticing which words stuck out for you.
And then I'm going to do it again,
And this time giving you space to repeat it and invoke it in your own way.
My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I cannot 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 I never do anything apart from that desire.
And if I do this,
I know that you will lead me by the right road,
Even 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.
And just taking another moment to connect and maybe repeat a line that's resonant with you or just asking God.
For that guidance,
Feeling into that trust.
The desire to please God,
Even though you might not know what that looks like,
Or even though you might not always get it right.
Stay with that desire,
That longing in your heart.
What would it be like to fully surrender and trust God in every moment?
Taking a moment to honor this prayer in whatever way feels good for you.
Maybe it's a bow to yourself for walking the unknown path,
Being willing,
Being open to receive what is in store for you.
And whenever you're ready,
You can start to open your eyes and come back here.
Thank you so much for praying and meta-praying with me,
As I like to call it.
If you like this,
I have a few more videos of different prayers that you can check out.
And I also have a audio course on the prayer of St.
Francis.
So it's a five-day audio experience.
So if you want more of this sort of feeling,
Slowing down into prayers,
I highly recommend checking out that course.
And I wish you so much trust.
In faith as you walk the unknown path,
As you walk the pathless path that is any spiritual quest.
And so I bow to you and I look forward to continuing to support your journey in the ways that I can.
Take care.
