Tag Archives: Prayer

Prayer Together

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prayer together penned by St. Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me a channel of your peace, that
where there is hatred, I may bring love;
where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness
where there is discord, I may bring harmony;
where there is error, I may bring truth;
where there is doubt, I may bring faith;
where there is despair, I may bring hope;
where there are shadows, I may bring light;
where there is sadness, I may bring joy.

Lord, grant that I may seek rather
to comfort than to be comforted;
to understand than to be understood;
to love than to be loved;

For it is by forgetting self that one finds;
it is by forgiving that one is forgiven;
it is by dying that one awakens to eternal life.

Amen.

Prayer Together 01.17.21

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Prayer together penned by Cardinal John Henry Newman

Dear Jesus, help us to spread Your fragrance everywhere we go.

Flood our souls with Your Spirit and Life.

Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly that our lives may only be a radiance of Yours.

Shine through us and be so in us that every soul we come in contact with may feel Your presence in our souls.

Let them look up, and see no longer us, but only Jesus!

Stay with us and then we shall begin to shine as You shine, so to shine as to be a light to others.

The light, O Jesus, will be all from You; none of it will be ours. It will be You, shining on others through us.

Let us thus praise You in the way You love best, by shining on those around us.

Let us preach You without preaching, not by words but by example, by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what we do, the evident fullness of the love our hearts bear for You.

Amen.

Prayer Together

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01.10.21 adapted from the prayer of Thomas à Kempis.

Grant to us, O Lord,
to know that which is worth knowing,
to love that which is worth loving,
to praise whatever pleases you most,
to esteem whatever is most precious to you,
and to dislike whatever is evil in your eyes.
Do not let us judge merely by what we see with our eyes,
nor to decide based on what we hear from ignorant men,
but to discern with true judgment between things visible and spiritual, and above all to search out and to do what is well pleasing to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Amen.

Prayer Together

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01.03.21 – prayer adapted from Ephesians 1:3-14

Blessed be you, O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus, in him you have blessed us with every spiritual blessing. You chose him to be holy and blameless before you in love, and therefore, since you have chosen Jesus, you have chosen us, for we are in him.

It pleased you, through Christ, to adopt us, it was your will. God praise you, praise your glorious grace which you showered on us as you showered it on Jesus. It is unfathomable that through the blood of Jesus we are redeemed, we are forgiven, all because you have lavished your riches on us, riches we do not grasp or even begin to understand.

God, we recognize that our wisdom and insight is limited, and that sometimes we fail to follow what we do not see, even worse, we often fail to follow even as we do see.  We also know, however that you are wisdom and you are insight allowing us to understand that Jesus was always your plan.  

We are impatient but you are timeless and your patience is limitless, therefore when it was right according to the fullness of our time you set Jesus on our paths. We usually don’t see your plan, if ever at all, but you have given us hope, peace, joy, and love to know that it is there even when we focus on hopeless, chaos, unsettledness, and hatred instead of your promised plan.  

We fail to see that we have already been given our inheritance as your adopted children.  We know that our path is according to your plan, your will, your purpose – purpose for us and purpose for all of humanity and eternity. On our path you engulf us with your hope.

God, we hear truth, which is all truth, we hear your salvation, you adopted us and marked us with the promised Spirit – this is what we know about the inheritance you have given.  This is what permits us to live in your redemption, as your people, and to praise you as we exist in your glory.

Amen.

Prayer Together

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12.20.20 – Love

God, we read that Jonah attempted to escape his path because ‘he knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, that you are slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love’.

Lord, your servant Zephaniah proclaimed, your ‘love renews us.’ 

Father, your apostle, Paul, explained that our love for you and others is always noticed by you.

God, you call us to be encouraged and united in love so that we can live in the richness of an assured understanding as we know you.

Father, the love that you have given us, defines us as your children.

Love is the proof that we know you, for you are love.

Lord, some of love’s defining adjectives are patient, kind, content, humble, selfless, respectful, sacrificial, considerate, honest, righteous.

In action we see that love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

God, you are love, God, your all of these things.  Love while all things fade, love is everlasting.

God, your sacrificial love is seen on the brutal cross, in the manger stall and lying in the cradle.  God, we praise you for your steadfast love.

Amen.

Prayer Together

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11.29.20 – First Sunday of Advent – Hope (based on Psalm 80)

O God, radiate Your light!

Lord, arouse Your strength and power, and save us!

Bring us back to You, God. Turn the light of Your face upon us so that we will be rescued from this sea of darkness.

Let Your protective hand rest on the one who is at Your right hand,
the child of man whom You have raised and nurtured for Yourself.

Then we will not turn away from You. Bring us back to life! And we will call out for You!

O Eternal God, Commander of heaven’s armies, bring us back to You. Turn the light of Your face upon us so that we will be rescued from this sea of darkness.

Amen.

Prayer Together 11.22.20

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(Based on Psalm 95:1-7a)

God, we come before you and sing to you, our Lord.  We hope that you are able to discern the joy in our voices as we honor you, our Rock.

Lord, we come to you with grateful hearts singing praises to you.

Father, you are our great God, the King of all Kings and the the one and only true God.

You, God, have formed the seas as well as the mightiest of mountains, they are yours.  May we recognize your gift of them all, may we honor you in the midst of this beauty and power. 

Lord, you made the seas and formed the land, those are yours as well, those, also deserve our honor and respect.

Father, we come before you in a reverent manner for you are our Lord and Maker.

God, you are our God. God, we are your sheep. God, you are our Shepherd.

Amen.

Prayer Together

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(Based on Psalm 123)

God, we lift up our eyes, you who are enthroned in the heavens!

As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to you LORD our God, until you have mercy upon us.

God, have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt.

God, our soul has had more than its fill of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the contempt of the proud.

Lord, we look to you for your peace, to live in your peace is our desire, Your peace provides us with hope and light.

God we look to you, our hope is in you, you are our light.

Amen.

Prayer Together

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A Prayer Based on Psalm 43

Defend us, O God. Argue our case against those people who don’t know you. We trust that you will protect us against those who follow evil instead of you.

God, you are our place of safety. You do not desire that we suffer this sadness that evil brings on us.

Send your light and your truth to guide us, lead us to your holy mountain, to your home.

We want to go to your altar, to you O God, you, who make us so very happy. God, our God, may we sing praises to you!

Why are we so sad? Why, then, are we upset? We tell ourself, “Wait for God’s help! We will again have a chance to praise you, our God, the one who will save us.”

Amen.

Prayer Together

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10.25.20 based on Psalm 1

God, you have said that we are happy when we do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers;

You have told us that our delight will be found in the law of the LORD, and encouraged us to meditate on your law day and night.

You have compared us to trees which have been planted by streams of water, that we too, will yield our fruit in season, and our leaves do not wither. And that all that we will prosper in all we do.

You have pointed out that the wicked are not frutful, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

You have said that the wicked will not stand in the judgment, and that  sinners will not be in the congregation of the righteous;

You, God, watch over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will is ruin.

Amen.