wednesday of the second week in lent

Date: Wednesday, February 28
Contributor: None
Lectionary Link https://www.lectionarypage.net/WeekdaysOfLent/WedSecondWeek.html

​We did not ask anyone to write a reflection for the Wednesdays in Lent in hopes that we will have enough participants to fill the other days.  Please reflect on this prayer.

There is a repetitive phrase in our Ash Wednesday gospel, “the Father who sees in secret, who will reward you.”(Matthew 6). Sometimes we feel stuck, bored, impatient, even discouraged by a lack of “progress” in our faith journey. Interior work happens in secret and is often unbeknownst to us. Maybe if we knew, we might get puffed up, or attempt to control of the process. Our rational mind might try to squelch the Mystery. Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk authored many books and struggled with a lack of unknowing. His prayer has helped generations of Jesus’ followers.
 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 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.
“The Merton Prayer” from Thoughts in Solitude Copyright © 1956, 1958 by The Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani

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