Prayer For Mental Illness
From chaos and emptiness,
From loneliness and lifelessness,
Come, Creator, Come.
From darkness and shapelessness,
From the abyss and awfulness,
Come, Creator, Come.
From fearfulness and hopelessness,
From weakness and dreadfulness,
Come, Creator, Come.
O Holy God,
open unto me
light for my darkness,
courage for my fear,
hope for my despair.
O loving God,
open unto me
wisdom for my confusion,
forgiveness for my sins,
love for my hate.
O God of peace,
open unto me
peace for my turmoil,
joy for my sorrow,
strength for my weakness.
O generous God,
open my heart
to receive all your gifts.
So often, Divine One
the tasks before me
feel overwhelming and impossible
The expectations of others weigh heavy
upon my shoulders.
At times like these,
I think I need to do something
to invest more time and effort
to pray longer and harder
to embark on a journey
in search of the Kingdom.
When I am too tired to "do" anymore
when I am content just to "be"
when I stop long enough to rest
when I am finally ready to give up
I find myself sitting on a treasure
You have hidden in a field
waiting for me to discover
When I lift the treasure
from its hiding place,
I find that You have
graced me with adequacy
for all that lies ahead.
May we discover through pain and torment,
the strength to live with grace and humor.
May we discover through doubt and anguish,
the strength to live with dignity and holiness.
May we discover through suffering and fear,
The strength to move toward healing.
May it come to pass that we be restored to health and to vigor.
May life grant us wellness of body, spirit, and mind.
And if this cannot be so, may we find in this transformation and passage
Moments of meaning, opportunities for love
and the deep and gracious calm that comes
when we allow ourselves to move on.
LOVING GOD, YOU ARE ALWAYS NEAR TO US, ESPECIALLY WHEN WE ARE WEAK, SUFFERING AND VULNERABLE.
Reach out to those who experience mental illness. Lift their burdens, calm their anxiety, and quiet their fears. Surround them with your healing presence that they may know that they are not alone. We ask this through the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes and in the name of your Son, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. AMEN.
Loving God, we pray today for those who are confronted by the sadness,
ambiguity and confusion of mental illness, and for those upon whom they
depend for attention and compassionate care. Look with mercy on all
whose afflictions bring them weakness, distress, confusion or isolation.
Provide for them homes of dignity and peace; give to them understanding
helpers and the willingness to accept help. We ask this in the name of
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Loving Creator, we come to you on this National Day of Prayer for Mental Illness Recovery and Understanding because we know that you are a God of love and compassion. We come as people of all creeds and all nations seeking your presence, comfort and guidance. We come as consumers, family members, friends, co-workers and mental health professionals. We come this day because we believe that you, Divine One, love each one of us just as we are and you walk with us on our individual journeys through life. You see the ignorance and injustice that divides and separates persons struggling with mental illness and you weep with us.
Give us courage to face our challenges and open us today to the many ways you are already working in our midst. Help us to identify mental illness as the disease it is, that we might have courage and wisdom in the face of ignorance and stigma. Inspire us as we seek to overcome fear, acquire knowledge, and advocate for compassionate and enlightened treatment and services.
Lead us as we open our hearts and homes, our communities and job opportunities, our houses of worship and communities of faith. Enable us to find ways to be inclusive of persons living with mental illness in our everyday lives. Be with doctors, therapists, researchers, social workers, and all those in the helping professions as they seek to overcome ignorance and injustice with care and compassion.
Sometimes, Divine Spirit, we feel discouraged and hopeless in the face of so many challenges. Help us to see ourselves as you see uspersons of value and worthpersons of creativity and potential. May we come to understand the interconnectedness of mind, body and spirit in bringing about health and wholeness. And may we go forward into our communities with a renewed sense of vision, hope and possibility for the future. Amen.
O God, our liberation and shalom, we seek the power of your Spirit, that we may live in fuller union with you, ourselves and our sisters and brothers with mental illness. Also grant that we may gain courage to love and understand each other. Amen.