Prayer For The Mentally Ill
Dear Lord Jesus, I come before you to ask for the restoration and healing of my mind. Thank you that you became fully human and walked amongst us, so you understand the complexities of the human brain. So I lay this mental illness before the cross. I surrender it now to your grace, knowing that you have paid the price for my freedom. Come, Holy Spirit bring the touch of new balance, correction and wellbeing to my thought life. Come into the memories of my past and the confusion of my present with new hope, hope for a future of breaking free from mental illness into a new dawn. Lord, right now I trust in the power of your unfailing love and grace, and the freedom that is found in you. Come release me into all the good things that you have instore for me. Amen.
Still my mind Lord. Come anchor me in your word and save my thoughts from endless drift. I will not go out onto the sea until my heart is at rest. Pull me into your harbour, for the ebb and flow of tides has left me dizzy, all at sea. I need a chance to just abide, to feel my feet touch solid ground. May time stand still until I find I'm filled up, until I've been re-fashioned and re-made. Help me gather up my feelings, sift the memories, tend to the cracks. Help me search for tides that keep me, when I'm ready to go back. Then when I feel the winds are changing, I'm sail ready, strong and full. I'll be safe on my adventures, prepared and restored in you.
For those of us who suffer from some form of mental illness, we seek your presence in our lives and in the lives of our loved ones. 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.
Comfort those who live with the darkness of depression. May we be a light in the darkness for them. Teach us to avoid false cheerfulness, and instead give us wisdom to know how to help our friends and family who struggle in this way to come up for air. To see, again, your goodness. Lord, watch over those who are, even now, contemplating suicide. Stop their hands. Send someone to intervene.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Grant patience and courage to the families and friends of those who are ill.
Increase their perseverance as they face challenges to recovery for their loved one.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Protect and defend those living with mental illness from exploitation, addictions and abuse.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Forgiving God,
We confess that we have judged those who struggle with mental illness.
We have judged because we do not understand.
Forgive us for making assumptions. Forgive us for our indifference.
Lord, in your mercy, Hear our prayer.
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.
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.