week 22: Catherine of Siena:
Holy Spirit, come into my heart;
draw it to Thee by Thy power, O my God,
and grant me charity with filial fear.
Preserve me, O ineffable Love, from every evil thought; warm me, inflame me with Thy dear love,
and every pain will seem light to me.
My Father, my sweet Lord, help me in all my actions.
Jesus, love, Jesus, love. Amen.
week 21: Anonymous (author of Cloud of Unknowing, a medieval book on contemplative prayer):
You are Wisdom, uncreated and eternal,
the supreme first cause, above all being,
sovereign Godhead, sovereign goodness,
watching unseen the God-inspired wisdom of Christian people.
Raise us, we pray, that we may totally respond
to the supreme, unknown, ultimate, and splendid height
of your words, mysterious and inspired.
There all God's secret matters lie covered and hidden
under darkness both profound and brilliant, silent and wise.
You make what is ultimate and beyond brightness
secretly to shine in all that is most dark.
In your way, ever unseen and intangible,
you fill to the full with most beautiful splendor
those souls who close their eyes that they may see.
And I, please, with love that goes on beyond mind
to all that is beyond mind,
seek to gain such for myself through this prayer.
week 20: John Baillie:
Eternal Father of my soul,
let my first thought today be of Thee,
let my first impulse be to worship Thee,
let my first speech be Thy name,
let my first action be to kneel before Thee in prayer.
For Thy perfect wisdom and perfect goodness:
For the love wherewith Thou lovest mankind:
For the love wherewith Thou loved me:
For the great and mysterious opportunity of my life:
For the indwelling of Thy Spirit in my heart:
For the sevenfold gifts of Thy Spirit:
I praise and worship Thee, O Lord.
week 19: Richard of Chichester:
Thanks be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ,
For all the benefits thou hast won for me,
For all the pains and insults thou hast borne for me.
O most merciful Redeemer, Friend, and Brother,
... May I know thee more clearly,
Love thee more dearly,
And follow thee more nearly:
For ever and ever.
week: 18: Martin Luther King:
And now to
him who is able to keep us from falling, and lift us from the dark
valley of despair to the bright mountain of hope, from the midnight of
desperation to the daybreak of joy; to him be power and authority, for
ever and ever.
week 17: Michelangelo:
Lord, make me see thy glory in every place.
week 16: Aelred of Rievaulx:
Lord, I
sometimes wander away from you. But this is not because I am
deliberately turning my back on you. It is because of the inconstancy of
my mind. I weaken in my intention to give my whole soul to you. I fall
back into thinking of myself as my own master. But when I wander from
you, my life becomes a burden, and within me I find nothing but darkness
and wretchedness, fear and anxiety. So I come back to you, and confess
that I have sinned against you. And I know you will forgive me.
week 15: Thomas A Kempis:
O Light eternal,
surpassing all created brightness, flash forth the lightning from above
and enlighten the inmost recesses of my heart. Cleanse, cheer,
enlighten, and vivify my spirit with all its powers, that it may
cleave to You in ecstasies of joy. Oh, when will that happy and
wished-for hour come, that You may fill me with Your presence and become
all in all to me? So long as this is not given me, my joy will not be
complete.
week 14: John Climacus:
Pray in all simplicity. For both the tax collector and the prodigal son were reconciled to God by a single phrase.
week 13: Patrick of Ireland:
As I arise today,
may the strength of God pilot me,
the power of God uphold me,
the wisdom of God guide me.
May the eye of God look before me,
the ear of God hear me,
the word of God speak for me.
May the hand of God protect me,
the way of God lie before me,
the shield of God defend me,
the host of God save me.
May Christ shield me today.
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
Amen.
week 12: Benedict of Nursia:
O God, from whom to be turned is to fall,
to whom to be turned is to rise,
and in whom to stand is to abide for ever:
grant us in all our duties thy help,
in all our perplexities thy guidance,
in all our dangers thy protection,
and in all our sorrows thy peace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
week 11: Martin Luther:
Oh, dearest Jesus,
Holy child,
make thee a bed,
soft, undefiled
within my heart
That it may
be a quiet chamber,
kept for thee.
week 10: Joyce Kilmer:
I THINK that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the sweet earth's flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
week 9: Hildegard of Bingen:
You, all accomplishing
Word of the Father,
are the light of primordial daybreak over the spheres.
You, the foreknowing mind of divinity,
foresaw all you works as you willed them,
... your presence hidden in the heart of your power,
your power like a wheel around the world,
whose circling never began
and never slides to an end.
week 8: Columba of Iona:
Be thou a bright flame before me,
Be thou a guiding star above me,
Be thou a smooth path below me,
Be thou a kindly shepherd behind me,
Today - tonight - and forever.
week 7: Reinhold Niebuhr:
God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
... the one from the other.
Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Amen.
week 6: Sadhu Sundar Singh:
My Lord God,
my all in all, life of my life, and spirit of my spirit, look in mercy
upon me, and so fill me with Your Holy Spirit that my heart shall have
no room for love of any but you. I seek from You no other gift but Yourself, who are the Giver of life and all its blessings.
From You I ask not for the world or its treasures, nor yet for heaven do
I even make request, but You alone do I desire and long for, and where
You are, there is Heaven. The hunger and the thirst of this heart of
mine can be satisfied only with You who have given it birth. O my
Creator! You have created my heart for Yourself alone, and not for
another. Therefore, this my heart can find no rest or ease save in You,
in You who have both created it and set in it this very longing for
rest. Take away, then, from my heart all that is opposed to You, and
enter and abide and rule forever. Amen
week 5: Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
In me there is darkness,
But with you there is light;
I am lonely, but you do not leave me;
I am feeble in heart,
but with you there is help;
I am restless,
but with you there is peace.
In me there is bitterness,
but with you there is patience;
I do not understand your ways,
But you know the way for me.
Lord Jesus Christ,
You were poor and in distress,
a captive and forsaken as I am.
You know all man’s troubles;
You abide with me
when all men fail me;
You remember and seek me;
it is your will that I should know you
and turn to you.
Lord, I hear your call and follow;
help me.
I remember in your presence all my loved ones,
my fellow-prisoners, and all who in this house
perform their hard service;
Lord, have mercy.
week 4: Teresa of Avila:
Let nothing disturb you,
nothing frighten you.
All things are passing;
patient endurance attains all things;
one who God possesses wants nothing
for God alone suffices.
week 3: Julian of Norwich:
In you, Father all-mighty, we have
our preservation and our bliss.
In you, Christ, we have our restoring and our saving.
You are our mother, brother, and Savior.
In you, our Lord the Holy Spirit,
is marvelous and plenteous grace.
You are our clothing;
for love you wrap us and embrace us.
You are our maker, our lover, our keeper.
Teach us to believe that by your grace
all shall be well,
and all shall be well,
and all manner of things
shall be well. Amen
week 2: Francis of Assisi:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred,
let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy;
Grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood,
as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving
that we receive,
it is in pardoning
that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying
that we are born to eternal life.
week 1: Jesus of Nazareth:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
