This has been one heckuva’ year. In the last year I’ve been through the entire gamut of emotion. From dejection, and despair to times of great elation and satisfaction, but central to this is the sense that all of this has been from a power beyond my reckoning and even in spite of me. I’ve been so busy I haven’t had much time to write any of my thoughts as I had been in the habit of here on this blog. Tonight I’m taking the time to record them and also to attach a picture of a sumptuous feast from today’s brunch following Mass at Mt. Irenaeus. The beauty of the food and its bounty really caught my eye today and I had to share them.
Following brunch I spent sometime walking up the Mountain Road all the way to one of my favorite haunts, La Posada. I spent sometime just sitting quietly in the middle of the woods in my favorite hermitage. This year has been hectic but fun and the weeks ahead seem to be more of the same. I’m still reminded of Thomas Merton’s prayer about the road ahead.
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 that 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. — Thomas Merton