On Being Found

I read the following tonight for my own night prayer. God spoke to me so profoundly through the words that I practiced lectio divina (meditative reading) with them. I was brought to a place of feeling like a lost little girl being shown the way home. It's from the book Thomas Merton: A Book of Hours, edited by Kathleen Deignan, pp. 66-67.

And he called out to me from his own immense depths.

Silence

Litany

Teach me to go to this country beyond words and beyond names.

Teach me to pray on this side of the frontier, here where these woods are.

I need to be led by you.

I need my heart to be moved by you.

I need my soul to be made clean by your prayer.

I need my will to be made strong by you.

I need the world to be saved and changed by you.

I need you for all those who suffer, who are in prison, in danger, in sorrow.

I need you for all the crazy people.

I need your healing hand to work always in my life.

I need you to make me, as you made your Son, a healer, a comforter, a savior.

I need you to name the dead.

I need you to help the dying cross their particular rivers.

I need you for myself whether I live or die.

It is necessary. Amen.

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