LORD GOD, we have no idea where we are going.
We do not see the road ahead of us.
We cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do we really know ourselves, and the fact that we think that we are following your will does not mean that we are actually doing so.
But we believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And we hope we have that desire in all that we do.
We hope that we will never do anything apart from that desire.
And we know that if we do this you will lead us by the right road though we may know nothing about it.
Therefore will we trust you always though we may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
We will not fear, for you are ever with us, and you will never leave us to face our perils alone. AMEN.
Monday, August 08, 2005
...And That's All I'm Going To Say About It
A prayer for the ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Orlando this week, and for all of us in the ELCA, based on a prayer by Thomas Merton:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Great prayer...one of my favourites. Thanks for posting it...I think we could pray it no less appropriately for the Anglican Communion, and indeed for the Church throughout the world (though I suspect that some denominations might question the fact that they don't know exactly where they are going!)
I've loved that prayer, ever since I first found it in Day by Day (the Notre Dame Student Prayer Book, c. '77 edition) at my Episcopal Church's rummage sale in the early 80s. (That was about the same time I discovered Thomas "Won't ever be canonized by the current RCC" Merton. Mmmmm!)
I will pray for the ELCA: may the follow along---even pass and lead!---the bold Gospel path of their covenant-partner (!), ECUSA. :-D
It's one of my favorate prayers, and yet it has such a bitter edge to it.
I have heard people pray it whom I truly believed were engaging in willful blindness -- hence the bitterness. There's no absolution in it for such blindness, but it's difficult to call someone on it... (bitter vestry meetings)...
Bag Lady: I know what you mean. On the other hand...this spring I was in a contentious OT lecture with one guy...he and I are probably at opposite poles regarding how we read Scripture, but...he was trying, so hard, to understand the other side. He really struggles with our class material because it pushes him out of his comfort zone and makes him feel like he's losing his faith bearings. I know I disagree with him profoundly in some ways, but if I heard him praying Merton's prayer I'd know it was absolutely sincere on his part. And I'd like to believe he'd feel the same about me.
Post a Comment