Hold Fast to Your Beliefs

Yesterday, I received two emails from a dear student and friend. The first one contained a letter written by God, and this dear person thought of me. Reading it, was like receiving a personal message, though I am sure many of us will relate to it as well:

"To: You

Hold fast to your beliefs.

When faced with painful challenges, know the truth of what you profess to believe. Know that these challenges are periods of transition, nothing more. Watch a butterfly as it emerges from its chrysalis. It appears to be struggling mightily but this struggle is nothing more than the completion of its metamorphosis - the final stage in its unfoldment in beauty.

Look with the eyes of detachment at your challenges, know that they are there to serve you and unleash your greatness.

This day, behold struggles as the final stages of your emergence into the next level of your awakening. That is all they are, nothing more.

Love,
God"

And the second email, where we had been discussing walking labyrinths, contained the following prayer by Thomas Merton, embedded in the text, who is one of my favorite spiritual writers of the twentieth century - a prolific mystic who spent most of his adult life as a Trappist monk. This prayer, was suggested as an appropriate one to recite while walking the labyrinth, and it seemed to complement the letter from God, as a genuine response sprung from the depths of the soul:

A Prayer of Trust and Confidence

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 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 that 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 way
though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore I trust in 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.

Amen"

This season, may you find comfort and peace and receive whatever messages are meant for you. They are all around you!