Category: Teach Us To Pray

Teach Us To Pray

Seek Truth, Find God

Smitten With Goodness
Season of asking in prayer

The Mystery of Asking

Why do we pray? If God already knows what we need before we ask, and God actually cares about us more than we care about ourselves, then why do we have to ask, receive, seek, find, (Matthew 7:7)? This is the mystery of asking. Prayer is a symbiotic relationship with life and with God, a synergy which creates a result larger than the exchange itself. We ask not to change God, but to change ourselves. We pray to form a living relationship, not to get things done. We need to pray to keep the symbiotic relationship moving and growing. Prayer is not a way to try to control God, or even to get what we want.  

Prayers of intercession or petition are one way of situating our life within total honesty and structural truth. We are all forever beggars before God and the universe. We can never engineer or guide our own transformation or conversion. If we try, it will be a self-centered and well-controlled version of conversion, with most of our preferences still fully in place, but now well-disguised.  We must “humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings.” It’s important that we ask, seek, and knock to keep ourselves in the right relationship with Life Itself. 

Life is a gift, totally given to us without cost, every day of it, and every part of it. A daily and chosen “attitude of gratitude” will keep our hands open to expect that life, allow that life, and receive that life at ever-deeper levels of satisfaction—but never to think we deserve it. 

O Mighty God, Help this world to know what is wrong and what is right. Provide peace and hope to those who are suffering from injustice. Show them that you are there, and you care for them and that you will make all things right. God, I pray for a world full of love and compassion.

Teach Us To Pray

The Work of Our Hands

Smitten With Goodness
Season of asking in prayer

Intercessory prayer for God’s goodness:

We can mis-live life. All it takes is the consistent application of mediocrity, laziness, procrastination, obsession with material possessions, and self-centeredness. Let’s pray for the Holy Spirit to guide our hands and be safe in God’s tower of goodness. 

Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe who is good and bestows good, let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands upon us, establish the work of our hands.

Proverbs 18:10, tells us that the name of the Lord is a strong tower; and the righteous man runs into it and is safe.

Teach Us To Pray

Loving Lost Souls

Smitten With Goodness
Season of asking in prayer

Intercessory prayer for lost souls:

Has the Spirit placed on your heart to pray for lost souls? Isn’t that really what our journey is all about, the salvation of our own souls and walking the journey with others?  I love to pray this prayer of St. Gertrude, a 13th century Benedictine nun and mystic who envisioned the release of 1000 souls from purgatory each time she prayed it:

Eternal Father, I offer You the most Precious Blood of Your Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the Universal Church, those in my own home, and within my family. Amen

Teach Us To Pray

Rise Up and Shine

Smitten With Goodness
Season of asking in prayer

Isaiah 60:1 is a powerful wake-up call, a reminder that the Light of the World, Jesus Christ, has come to dispel the darkness and ignite a flame within our souls. His glory shines upon us, not because of who we are, but because of who He is.

Holy Spirit, guide all your people to live the life You envision for us, help us see ourselves as You see us- beloved, valuable, and filled with potential. We groan to discover a purpose that transcends our circumstances, a joy that outweighs our sorrows, and a hope that anchors us in the storms of life. We are called to rise up and shine, as a response to Your glory and light in our midst in a world that has been overcome by darkness.

Teach Us To Pray

Powerful Beyond Measure

Smitten With Goodness
Season of asking in prayer

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Marianne Williamson

Teach Us To Pray

Our Inherent Value

Smitten With Goodness
Season of asking in prayer

Intercessory Prayer for Awareness

Lord, help all creation see we are created by Your divine workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which You have prepared for us. Help us walk in this knowledge. Grant us  patience with all things – but first with myself. Clear our mind to know that our mistakes don’t detract our value as a human being. We are a perfectly valuable, creative, and worthwhile person simply because we exist. And no amount of triumphs or tribulations can ever change that.

A prayer based in Ephesians 2:10 based on the truth that God created us to be a reflection of him, and that he calls us his masterpiece and the writings of St. Francis de Sales.

Teach Us To Pray

Peace Within

Smitten With Goodness
Season of asking in prayer

Intercessory prayer for peace in our hearts

Lord, May today there be peace within. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise, and love. It is there for each and every one of us.

-St. Teresa of Avila

Teach Us To Pray

Resting in Christ’s Peace

Smitten With Goodness
Season of asking in prayer

How can we have peace in this life which is filled with division, strife and suffering? With Jesus accompanying us in our daily life, we are given our daily bread and our needs are met where we can intercede for others in prayer.

If you need a peaceful heart, take a few minutes each day to grow in the habit of receiving the gift of peace that He wants to share with you. Draw near and ask the question, how peaceful am I?

How frequently am I able to live in the moment, being fully present to others, and entirely content with my circumstances?

Do I tell God my needs? How close do I feel to God?

Do I count on God to provide for all of my needs?

Am I self-reliant or reliant on God? 

Do I expect to be in control of everything or do I allow God to control everything, asking for His help and counting on it?

How often do I compare myself with others and find myself lacking?

Do I trust in God’s mercy by actively seeking it, by going to confession or turning to God with a remorseful heart.

Do I feel peace with whom God has created me to be a beloved child of God?

Lord, You did not leave us alone but with the gift of the Holy Spirit. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” John 14:27

Teach Us To Pray

Relief for the Suffering

Smitten With Goodness
Season of asking in prayer

Intercessory Prayer for Healing

Heavenly Father, I come before You on behalf of those who need physical, emotional, and spiritual healing. I lift their names before Your throne of grace, asking for Your mighty touch to bring restoration and wholeness to their bodies, minds, and souls.

Lord, I pray for doctors, nurses, and medical professionals involved in their care, that You would grant them wisdom, skill, and compassion. May Your healing power flow through them and bring comfort and relief to those who are suffering. Strengthen the faith of those who are sick and their loved ones, reminding them of Your faithfulness and love. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

This prayer is based on James 5:14-16, which instructs us to pray for the sick and to confess our sins to one another, so that we may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

Teach Us To Pray

Peace of Heart

Smitten With Goodness
Season of asking in prayer

The peace we want in the world begins within our own heart.  It is living a life with intention, awareness and detachment.  Surrendering to the ways we circumvent a peaceful path and offering them to God will be the stepping stones to our pathway to peace. 

The Serenity Prayer starts by having us ask our Higher Power to grant serenity that leads to acceptance of the unchangeable. We reach out. We let our Higher Power put an end to our struggle. When we refuse to accept our sinful nature, we struggle against chains that we can not remove. Our acceptance saves energy which can be used for our healing. Prayer is always about reaching outside of ourselves, about stepping outside of our egos, our instincts, our all-consuming troubles. The Serenity Prayer is about us reaching out for our Higher Power’s peace, grace, and healing.

Prayer for Serenity

O God, grant me serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference;
living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardships 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.

– Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)

Lord, touch me with your peace and grace. Help me to accept the things I can’t change. Please use the energy that acceptance frees up to help me be the person you want me to be. Amen