Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to grant us grace to shift our hopes more fully to heavenly hopes and let go of earthly hopes.

This is a prayer version of this beautiful verse of the hymn “Be Thou my vision”

Be thou my dignity, thou my delight

Be thou my battle-shield, sword for the fight

Thou my soul’s shelter, thou my high tower

Raise thou me heavenward, O power of my power

Experiencing the love of God is one of the primary things that kindles love in us. Let’s ask for it.

This prayer acknowledges that perhaps there are things God wants us to focus on and engage with that we currently are not aware of.

Let’s express our openness to his guidance. Help us come to an awareness of what you would have us focus on. We want to be led by you, Holy Spirit.

This is a prayer that asks God to guide us in what we persevere in and what we let go of. I know well the path of letting go of the hard things and digging in deeper to the things that feel like they are working. I’m not saying we should always do the opposite, but this prayer expresses that our desire is to follow Gods will, not our own.

This was inspired by an audiobook I listened to by Richard Rohr called “the art of letting go” — he has some good observations about how letting go or forgiving or surrendering is a significant part of our faith journey in growing in love for God and others.

This is a prayer expressing the desire to let go from whatever God would have us let go of and asking for guidance and courage to do that. Imagine the love that could grow in you as a result of that prayer!

Peace prayer of Saint Francis

Prayer for a rich person from 1 Timothy 6:17-19

Prayer for an attractive woman. This prayer is meant to be a positive habit you can establish for the cue of seeing an attractive woman in order to replace other responses that are lacking in love.

I recommend starting with just the first part to keep it easy: “Come Holy Spirit, kindle in her the fire of your love.” This is an excellent all-purpose prayer for anyone and can train you to desire something good for her. I not aware of any deeper good than being kindled with love for God, so truly this is asking for her highest good.

When you are able, add in the second line: “grant me the grace of chastity”. Now you are not only asking for something good for her, but asking for grace from God to love her and all people with a rich and pure, seeing yourself and her as whole people (not just minds or bodies or other parts of people) and growing in desire to have loving, healthy, integrated relationships, not lustful, fragmented, adversarial, or exploitative relationships.

The last part of the prayer is meant to help imagine the loving, chaste, healthy potential you and kindle you with desire for it. You could modify this part as God gives you vision for the beautiful and healthy state he is calling you into.

Prayer for humility. Some of these ideas are drawn from Peter Kreefts book “spiritual direction from Thomas Aquinas” specifically the page on Peace. Another resource is “the rare jewel of Christian contentment” by Jeremiah Burroughs.

There are many excellent resources on cultivating humility and I will likely do more recordings on that.