pat loughery

If You allow people to praise me, I shall not worry. If You let them blame me, I shall worry even less. If You send me work, I shall embrace it with joy. It will be rest to me because it is Your will. If You send me rest, I will rest in You. Only save me from myself. Save me from my own, private, poisonous urge to change everything, to act without reason, to move for movement’s sake, to unsettle everything that You have ordained.

Let me rest in Your will and be silent. Then the light of Your joy will warm my life. Its fire will burn in my heart and shine for Your glory. This is what I live for. Amen, amen.

from “Dialogues with Silence: Prayers & Drawings” (Thomas Merton), p.53

I keep this book in the bathroom when I need reading material :-). It acts frequently as a devotional aid for me, and it reminds much about how much I love Merton, and his way of following Christ. And I find that Merton’s words center and still me, relieving me of much that is unnecessary and damaging.