Prayer

Often, non harming ministers are asked how to pray, and when to pray. Here are a few tips to pass along.

• Paste a morning prayer onto the bathroom mirror, to get into a habit as part of morning good-grooming.
• Copy an evening prayer onto a 5×7 card. Frame it and put it by the bedside, and make a habit of saying it before turning off the light.
• Copy a favorite psalm onto the ‘notes’ of your smart phone or your email program.
•  Install a random prayer app on your computer or smart phone. BibleGateway offers one for free. So do others.
• When feeling particularly down, think of someone else and pray for them. That sends them a “spiritual bouquet” and takes your mind off your own troubles, uplifting your spirit.
• Schedule a regular “gratitude walk;” five minutes where you give thanks for everything you see and everything that happens along the walk, no matter what that is.

A Few Simple Morning and Evening Prayers

MORNING PRAYER

Dear God, thank you for the gift of another day.  Please help me to feel your presence and guide me to use this gift to good ends, so I may be a gift back to your world, in love and kindness. I ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen  

MORNING PRAYER – from St. Francis

Dear Lord,  make me an instrument of your peace today. 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.  O Divine Master, 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. Amen

MORNING PRAYER: (Excerpt from Lorica by St. Patrick)

I arise today, through a mighty strength, The invocation of the Trinity, through a belief in the Threeness, a confession of the Oneness of the Creator of creation… I arise today through the strength of heaven: light of sun, brilliance of moon, splendor of fire, speed of lightning, swiftness of wind, depth of sea, stability of earth, firmness of rock. I arise today through God’s strength to pilot me: God’s might to uphold me, God’s wisdom to guide me God’s eye to look before me, God’s ear to hear me, God’s word to speak for me, God’s hand to guard me, God’s way to lie before me, God’s host to secure me against snares of devils, against temptations of vices against inclinations of nature, against all who wish me ill, afar and anear, alone and in a crowd….Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in the eye that sees me, Christ in the ear that hears me. I arise today through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, through a belief in the Threeness, through a confession of the Oneness, of the Creator of creation. Amen

Traditional Bedtime Prayer

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
Angels watch me through the night,
And wake me with the morning light.

many people omit the 2nd verse:
If I should die before I wake,
bless me Lord my soul to take.
If I should live for other days,
I pray the Lord to guide my ways.

The Lord’s Prayer

(available in multiple languages and versions at www.voiceshome.com )

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.  Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

A New Irish-Style Bedtime Prayer

As I lie down this very night I bid lie down with me
the peace of Father, Son and Spirit, blessed trinity. Amen.