My Sonshine
Together We Pray
I received this prayer book, Straight from the Heart, as a gift from a very dear mentor, confidant, and foster parent here in Riyadh. Along with this prayer book is the gift of love, faith, and hope. This prayer book has been my refuge and solace when I was lost and tormented. I pray that you'll find the courage to surrender yourself and direct all your burden before God. May your faith be strengthened and brings grace and healing. And, let us pray for one another.
Prayer for the Families
God, our Father, loving and merciful,
bring together and keep all families
in perfect unity of love and mutual support.
Infuse in each member the spirit of understanding,
forbearance, and affection for each other.
Keep quarrels, bitterness, and pettiness far from them
and for their occasional failures instill forgiveness and peace.
May the mutual love and affection of parents
be a source of loving obedience and discipline.
May their chastity and fidelity be an inspiration to their children.
Instill in children such self-respect that they may respect each other,
obey their parents and those in authority,
and grow in mature independence and the tender joys of friendship.
Make the mutual affection and respect of families
a sign of Christian life here and hereafter,
through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
A Family Prayer
Our Father, we thank you for your love and for the many good things you have given to our family.
Help us grow our gratitude by loving each other as you love us.
Give us patience and understanding to bear with one another,
generosity to share our joys and sorrows, honesty to admit our faults and correct them.
We entrust our family to your Fatherly care and protection.
Help us grow daily in wisdom and grace.
Oh dear Jesus, make our home a shrine of peace, purity, love, labor, and faith.
Bless and protect all of us, absent and present, living and dead.
O Mary, loving Mother of Jesus and our Mother,
pray to Jesus for our family and for all the families of the world.
Blessed Saint Joseph, holy guardian of Jesus and Mary,
assist us by your prayers in all the necessities of life.
Ask of Jesus that special grace which he granted to you,
to watch over our home at the pillow of the sick and dying, so that with Mary and with you,
heaven may find our family unbroken in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Amen.
Prayer for My Parents
For my Father: I thank You, dear God, for giving me my father.
Enlighten me, so I may realize the depth of his love for me and the greatness of his sacrifices for me.
His fatherly care reflects Your goodness; his manliness, Your strength; his understanding, Your wisdom.
He is your faithful servant and image. Bless him with peace of soul, health of body, and success in his work. Amen.
For my Mother: Lord Jesus, look with mercy and love upon my mother.
Reward her untiring generosity, her love, her care for me.
I ask for her the same blessings you desire for Your Mother:
the health of body, peace of soul, the happiness of family, and the bountiful grace of God.
Give her the richest joy of a mother's heart, that her child may grow in wisdom and grace before God and men. Amen
Prayer for Our Children
Dear Lord, we thank You for our children. They are our sunlight, our joy, our fulfillment.
It is because we love them so much that we implore your blessing and protection.
They need it so, surrounded as they are with elements and situations which we ourselves have not faced in our youth.
We do not ask You, God, for an insulated world for our children, for in this kind of world,
they will not grow nor do we you to preserve them from all mistakes, for by some of these are they truly made wiser;
but only from such that will destroy them, irreparably perhaps with one sure blow.
Look down upon our petitions as indicative of our willingness to do our share in preserving them from such a fall.
Grant us the wisdom and the tact needed for vigilance over our children.
Lord God, You who share your creativity with us in the bringing forth of our children
through conjugal love, keep them in good health, help us, parents,
to guide them as God's children from childhood through adolescence to maturity. Amen.
Prayer for Healing
Speak clearly, Lord, into my heart. In the past, I had been busy with life and forgot what it meant to really live.
In the midst of my pains and difficulties, allow me to know You
so that I may understand what living for you is all about. I am weak, Lord, and helpless without You.
I surrender to You, Lord, all my fears, all my burdens. I will focus on Your truth that You will be with me always.
I will never understand Your ways but I know You have a purpose for me.
Lord, as I continue this prayer, gently touch me with Your healing hands.
You are the Divine Healer and the greatest Physician of all. I believe in my heart that nothing is impossible to You.
Heal my innermost being, my spirit, and my soul. I know, Lord, that there is an end to my loneliness and sickness because You died on the cross and rose from the dead.
From now on I just want to live with a loving heart and not with a grumbling heart,
from now on, Lord, I just want to live with a faithful heart and not with a fearful heart.
In the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
Lord, look upon me with eyes of mercy. May Your healing Spirit rest upon me.
It is through Your power that I was created. Since You created me from nothing, You can certainly recreate me.
Fill me with the healing power of Your Spirit.
May Your life-giving powers flow into every cell of my body and into the depths of my soul.
Mend what is broken. Cast out anything that should not be within me. Rebuild my brokenness.
Restore my strength for service in Your Kingdom. Lord, You invite all who are burdened to come to You.
Allow Your healing hand to heal me.
Touch my soul with Your compassion for others.
Touch my heart with Your courage and infinite love for all.
Touch my mind with Your wisdom, that my mouth may always proclaim Your praise.
Teach me to reach out to You in my need, and help me lead others to You by my example.
Most loving Sacred Heart of Jesus, bring me health in body and spirit that I may serve You with all my strength.
Touch gently this life which You have created, now and forever. Amen.
Prayer in Time of Depression
Dear Lord, You are the one who created me
and You are the one who has provided for my salvation and for my spiritual growth.
I firmly believe that You are the great God who loves me very much
and that You know where I am going and what is good for me.
I humbly beseech You now, dear Lord, because I am confused, struggling with hurting pain.
I am afraid and discouraged. I feel lost and very depressed. Let me feel Your loving care and compassion.
Let me feel Your loving care and compassion. Let me feel Your sense of purpose
and understand what You have planned for me in this crisis that I am now undergoing.
Lord, You are my refuge, my hope, and my stronghold in this very difficult time of my life.
I lean on and confidently put my trust in You. For I know that You will not forsake me.
I pray that You will let time heal this wound and I will become a better person
because of Your work in me in this crisis. Amen.
Prayer for Serenity (Reinhold Niebuhr)
God, grant me the 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 hardship as the pathway to peace.
Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it.
Trusting that He 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.
Prayer for Strength
Lord, enlighten what is dark in me;
strengthen what is weak in me;
mend what is broken in me;
bund what is bruised in me;
heal what is sick in me;
straighten whatever is crooked
and revive whenever peace and love have died in me. Amen.
Novena Prayer for Our Dear Departed
Let us now offer this novena prayer for our beloved ( Lorenzo )
who has departed from this world and now returns to You.
Oh Lord, in Your mercy, welcome him into Your heavenly kingdom.
He has gone to his rest. Now, he hopes to rise with You.
Oh Lord, in Your encompassing love, bring him into the light of Your Divine Presence.
We meekly intercede, Oh Lord, for our faithful departed ( Lorenzo ).
May he find eternal peace with You. May he inherit Your kind forgiveness.
May he see You face to face. Yes, You are our hope in this world.
You are our resurrection and life. You are our Judge and Saviour.
Oh Lord, we humbly beseech You:
Be merciful in Your judgment and grant to ( Lorenzo ) the promised salvation.
Remember not his faults, but cleanse him of his sins and grant him a lasting reward.
Oh Lord, extend to ( Lorenzo ) Your victory over sin and death.
Let him not be separated from You, but grant him a place in Your eternal abode.
Jesus, Lord of the living and the dead, comfort of the weary and the afflicted,
conqueror of death and sin, guide our departed brother as he reaches the end of his journey, lead him back to You.
As his life comes to an end, let him live with You.
As he stands before You in judgment, please speak again these words:
"Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you."
May the good Lord grant him a merciful judgment and look kindly upon him.
Lord, help us see death for what it really is: the end for poverty, and the beginning of riches;
the end of frustration, and the beginning of fulfillment; the end of fear, and the beginning of tranquility;
the end of pain, and the beginning of joy; the end of weakness, and the beginning of strength.
Let not grief overwhelm us or a sense of loss embitter us, but out of our sadness let there arise a new joy.
Cast out our fears and let not our hearts be troubled.
Let Your spirit of peace come alive within our experience and hurt,
our sorrow and isolation, our sadness today and loneliness tomorrow.
We humbly commend to You, ( Lorenzo ), whom You called out of this mortal life.
You loved him always with great love. Now that You freed him from all the evils of this earth,
bring him into Your paradise where there is no more grief or mourning or sadness,
but peace and joy with Your Son and the Holy Spirit forever.
We thank You for all the blessing You have given to ( Lorenzo ) in his mortal life.
We pray that he may be able to glorify You with the life he lived and the way he made use of Your blessings.
Lord, grant that we will never forget that life is short and uncertain.
Let Your Spirit guide us in holiness, justice, and service to our brothers and sisters.
We pray for the healing of all unhappy and hurting feelings death may have caused in our hearts.
Be with us, Lord, during our moments of sorrow and loneliness. You are our rock, our fortress, and our strength.
We trust in You and hope in Your glorious resurrection. We lift up to You our grief and sorrow,
confident that You will change mourning to rejoicing that our beloved now rest in Your peace.
Eternal rest grant unto ( Lorenzo ), Oh Lord.
And let perpetual light shine upon him.
May he rest in peace. Amen
May the soul of ( Lorenzo ) and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
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