If you allow people to praise me, I will not be troubled by it. If you let them criticize me, I will not be troubled by that either, but I will be glad. When you entrust me with some work, I will take it on happily and it will be my rest, because it is your will. And when you send me rest, I will gladly rest in you.
Deliver me only from myself. Save me from my own toxic urge to interfere in everything, to act impulsively, to wander aimlessly and to bring chaos to everything you have organized. Allow me to rest in your will and to be silent. Then the light of your joy will warm my entire life, its fire will glow in my heart and shine to your glory. And for this I live. Amen, amen.
(Thomas Merton 1915–1968/, The Sign of Jonah, translation by Marie Sommerová)
