Woke up this morning to do my morning prayers and was flooded with emotion. There is so much happening in the world - both micro and macro. So I prayed for stillness, clarity, and hope in these times. The prayer I turned to was my own riff on Thomas Merton’s Thoughts on Solitude, but providing the actual prayer below.

“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 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 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 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.”

God, please be with us as our outer and inner worlds spin out of control.