Give me the strength that waits upon you in silence and peace.
Give me humility in which alone is rest, and deliver me from pride which is the heaviest of burdens.
Possess my whole heart and soul with the simplicity of love.
Occupy my whole life with the one thought and the one desire of love,
that I may love not for the sake of merit,
not for the sake of perfection,
not for the sake of virtue,
not for the sake of sanctity,
but for You alone.
Thomas Merton