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 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.

~ Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude, Part 2, Chapter 2

This prayer, commonly referred to as The Merton Prayer is referenced by Posse Comitatus the finale of Season 3 of The West Wing where Leo makes an off-hand comment asking who the monk was who said “I don’t always know the right thing to do, Lord, but I think the fact that I want to please you, pleases you.” (The scene begins around 35 minutes into the episode on the DVD.)

Leo didn’t get the word precisely right, but he nailed the spirit and the heart of the prayer.

This might be the best and truest prayer ever uttered by Man. Or maybe it’s just one which speaks to me especially strongly.

I used to have a copy of it printed out and hung on my wall. I realized tonight that I don’t, and I should, so I turned it into a PDF formatted in the way that I liked it, suitable for printing. I post it here in case you want to print it out too.

Elsewhere

• Merton Institute
• Thomas Merton at Wikipedia
• Merton Center