Merton Upon Entering the Monastery

"I say over and over again: my prayers have no merit in themselves;
nothing that is mine has any merit at all. If I had been praying all my
life to become a Trappist, I would have no right to expect to become
one--no right to demand, as a return, that I be accepted by the Abbot.

Yet I fall on my face, in tears, and beg God that I may become a
Trappist at all hours of the day, not because I think to deserve
anything by that, but I believe that if He wills, I can be admitted to
the cloister --even as soon as Christmas."

( RUN TO THE MOUNTAIN THE JOURNALS OF THOMAS MERTON Volume One
1939-1941, page 468. Merton wrote this on December 3, 1941, as he was
struggling about becoming a Trappist Monk. )

What do I believe about prayer when I am struggling?

Thanks Wayne Burns