The Merton Prayer is a humble and moving expression of prayer. 

It’s found in Thomas Merton’s Thoughts in Solitude.

Merton was an American monk who explored Eastern thought as part of his his study of mystic practice.

He was one of the first Western religious thinkers to initiate dialogue with prominent Asian spiritual figures, including the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh and D.T. Suzuki.

He died an untimely, accidental death in 1968 at the age of 53. Fortunately, before he passed, he wrote his autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain (originally published in 1948) in which he shares insights and experiences from taking vows in one of the most demanding Catholic orders—the Trappist monks—at age 26.

Here’s one of my favorite passages: “We refuse to hear the million different voices through which God speaks to us, and every refusal hardens us more and more against His grace—and yet He continues to speak to us.”