Prayer for Every Day

Almighty and Eternal God,
You are hidden from my sight
You are beyond the understanding of my mind
Your thoughts are not my thoughts
Your ways are past finding out
Yet You have breathed Your Spirit into my life;
Yet you have formed my mind to seek You;
Yet You have inclined my heart to love You;
Yet You have made me restless for the rest that is in You
Yet You have planted within me a hunger and thirst that make me dissatisfied with all the joys of earth.

O You alone know what lies before me this day. Grant that in every hour of it I may stay close to You. Let me be in the world, yet not of it. Let me use this world without abusing it. If I buy, let me be as though I possessed not. If I have nothing, let me be as though possessing all things.

Let me today embark on no undertaking that is not in line with Your will for my life, nor shrink from any sacrifice which Your will may demand.

Suggest, direct, control every movement of my mind, for my Lord Christ's sake. Amen.

-- John Baille



Prayer from St. Augustine, Book One, Part One

You are great, O Lord, and greatly to be praised. Great is Your power, and Your wisdom infinite.

And man would praise You; man, who is a but a small particle of Your creation; yes, man, though he carries with him his mortality, the evidence of his sin...

You awake us to delight in Your praise; for You made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.