Let Us Be A Light
Offering compassion, respect, a sense of peace and belonging to individuals affected by sexual misconduct within the church.
Community Prayers
| A Prayer for the Abused Please touch the hearts of these precious children of Yours, wrapping them in Your Love as you never letting them go. Let the anger melt away from their hearts and when their hurt shows itself, touch them with Your healing consolations so that they may know Your comfort, Your safety, Your Love, Amen
If We Would Only Know
If we would only know How you call us in the outcry of abused creation, The piercing wails of people in despair, The whimperings of a little child.
If we would only know That each appeal is a gift to us A golden opportunity To console pained members of your body.
If we would only know How our soul is paralyzed by our plodding life Full of chatter, idle dreams and warped desires That drive us from your lovely sight.
If we would only know How close you are to all of us, It would thaw the chill that kills compassion, The stubborn will that drives us Like an angry ticking clock Standing watch against an empty wall.
No longer would our heart be shallow, small Logged with the sentiments of an angry past Like a silted harbor cut off from the clear sea Of your rushing love.
Practicing the Prayer of Presence Resurrection Press, 1993, p 121
Radiating Christ
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 soul. 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 our example, By the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what we do, the evident fullness of the love our hearts bear to You. Amen.
- John Henry Cardinal Newman
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Inner Healing Emmanuel, God-with-us, we come to you this day, When we feel lost or confused about the direction of our lives. All: O God, be with us. When we sometimes feel that we are journeying alone. All: O God, be with us. When we forget that someone is at hand who knows and understands us. All: O God, be with us. God of our hearts, healer of mind and body, you are tender and compassionate, slow to anger and most loving. All: O God, be with us. As we struggle with our angers, fears, guilt, and anxieties. All: O God, be with us. As we seek your love to bind up our wounds. All: O God, be with us. When we are running away from our pain and our fear. All: O God, be with us. God, you are near to all who call upon you, who call upon you in truth. All: O God, be with us. Prayer of a Loved One Taken from the fourth Station of the Cross: Jesus Meets His Mother
My Jesus, Lord, I know what you are telling me. To watch the pain of those we love is harder that to bear our own. To carry my cross after you, I, too, must stand and watch the sufferings or my dear ones – the heartaches, sickness, and grief of those I love.
And I must let them watch mine, too.
I do believe – for those who love you all things work together unto good.
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A Prayer for Abusers
Merciful and just God, remember those who violated your loved ones. Grant them your grace to admit and recover from their sins, crimes, and sickness.
Help the perpetrators and their enablers to know in their hearts how they have desecrated the spirit of Your sons and daughters. Help them to understand with compassion what it means to have your trust betrayed, love exploited, faith decimated, hope vanquished, and to be alienated from your safe and sacred place.
We pray that they will be genuinely sorry and make personal amends. Support them in their journey from darkness to light. Amen
You Stand at the Door and Knock You stand at the door And knock, my Lord Until I open up. You want to eat with me The bread of daily sorrow And to break for me The bread of your eternal love. Let me open up with the joy and eagerness To receive you as my savior, The savior of the world. Let me recognize your knocking When it comes through someone else No matter how simple or sinful she may be. Let me see beyond her charm or rudeness The Spirit who may have chosen her To light a candle in my life. They may be called to carry A message of the Paraclete for me. He may be called To form and fashion me In the image of my Lord. Let me never doubt That the same spirit may use me too, In spite of my own sinfulness, To bring some love and light To fellow sinners I may meet More intimately.
Practicing the Prayer of Presence Resurrection Press, 1993, p 130
Help Me Help Another
Father, help me help this other. I really want to run away from this display of pain and anger. It frightens me and makes me uncomfortable. I don’t know what to say and I don’t want offend. I don’t know how to fix things. Help me place my trust You and not in myself. Only Your love can fix the damage our sins cause one another. So fill my heart with love, Father, to overcome this fear. Fill my heart with love so that I can listen and truly hear and bring Your healing to another. Fill my heart with love so that I can be Your light. Fill my heart with love. Amen |
