A Prayer for Priority
Lord, ruin me. Ruin me for any other purpose than the one you created me for. Ruin me for any worldly gain or popularity. Ruin me for anything less than being you to this lost and dying world. Let me neither grieve your Spirit nor quench your Spirit. Let me be filled with your Spirit – so I can go be You. So that I can love as you love. So that others seeing me, hearing me, observing me, encounter you. Ruin me Lord, for anything less than that.
A Bridge-Builder’s Prayer
Dear Jesus,
We thank you that you love us more than we can know or understand. We thank you that your love built a bridge, through your death and resurrection, to our Father in heaven and our eternal home. We are bound together in our love for you.
Please help us to be bridge builders too, for the Body of Christ- the Church. Let your love and Spirit in us work to build bridges between all creeds, cultures, races, and groups. So that we will be be a clear reminder that we are all one in the family of God. We ask this in Your Holy Name. Amen.
A Prayer Before Beginning Work
To You, O Divine One, from whose hands
comes the work of creation, so artfully designed,
I pray that this work I am about to do
may be done in companionship with you.
May the work that I will soon begin
sing praise to you, as songbirds do.
May the work that I will soon begin add to the light of your presence
because it is done with great love.
May the work that I will soon begin speak like a prophet of old
of your dream of beauty and unity.
May the work that I will soon begin
be a shimmering mirror of your handiwork
in the excellence of its execution,
in the joy of doing it for it’s own sake,
in my poverty over ownership of it,
in my openness to failure or success,
in my invitation to others to share in it
and in its bearing fruit for the world.
May I be aware that through this work
I draw near you.
I come to you, Beloved,
with ready hands.
~from Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim, Fr. Edward Hayes