“When I am liberated by silence, when I am no longer involved in the measurement of life, but in the living of it, I can discover a form of prayer in which there is effectively, no distraction. My whole life becomes a prayer. The whole world of silence in which I am immersed contributes to my prayer.”
Thomas Merton, Thoughts In Solitude
The wise and holy, the foolish and the seeking, they all seem to express this idea of life becoming a prayer. When I first starting curating this prayer blog, I referred to Michel Quoist who said the same sort of thing in Prayers of Life:
“If we knew how to listen to God, if we knew how to look around us, our whole life would become prayer. For it unfolds under God’s eyes and no part of it must be lived without being freely offered to him.”
Today’s prayer comes from Thomas Merton’s little “Thoughts in Solitude.” It is a simple honest little thing. It is interwoven with confusion and trust; in other words, it is prayer:
The Desire to Please You, Pleases You
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.
Curriculum of the Spiritual Life 
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Rusty, I’m so blessed you read my soul care blog, so I have the chance to come to visit you What a beautiful, simple prayer, ‘The Desire to Please You’ — how clumsy we are in seeking God, not sure if we know where we’re going, but we trusting anyway, stumbling, hoping, yearning..it’s a humble path, I can see why we are told to be like little children! I just love the Thomas Merton quote, and this one too: “If we knew how to listen to God, if we knew how to look around us, our whole life would become prayer. ” I look forward to connecting again, what a blessing!
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It’s fun to share the joy of prayerfulness that doesn’t depend on how smart we “have to be.” Instead, I suspect we are always in a posture of having to merely “learn to listen.” I appreciate how you have been listening; thanks for your encouragement.
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