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!

Transcript:

Come, Holy Spirit. Show me what you want me to detach from and let go of.

Come, Holy Spirit. Show me what you want me to let go of and detach from.

Come, Holy Spirit. Show me what you want me to detach from and let go of.

Amen.

Peace prayer of Saint Francis

Transcript:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love,

where there is injury, pardon,

where there is doubt, faith,

where there is despair, hope,

where there is darkness, light

where there is sadness, joy.

O divine master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love

for it is in giving that we receive

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life Amen.

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

Transcript:

Come, Holy Spirit. Kindle in Andrew humility in this present world. Help him to not put his hope in wealth, which is so uncertain. But to put his hope in you, you richly provide us with everything we need for our enjoyment.

Kindle and him energy to do what is good to be rich in good deeds. Kindle in him a spirit of generosity and a willingness to share.

Help him to see that in this way, he will be able to lay up treasure for himself as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that he may take hold of the life that is truly life.

Amen.

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 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.

Transcript:

. Come, Holy Spirit, kindle in her the fire of your love, and pour out in me the grace of chastity. that I might honor her as I would, my own mother or sister, and that I might enjoy the freedom of being able to do good to her without any trace of selfish desire. Amen.

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.

Transcript:

Come, Holy Spirit, kindle in Christian humility. help him to find his rest in humility.

Help him to find contentment through accepting his life and his circumstances as coming to him by your will, with your love. may his place of contentment not be somewhere in the past or in the future but may it be now in every present moment, may he trust that you have arranged every present moment for his good, out of your great love for him.

Help him to seek peace, not through fulfilling his desire, not through balancing, good desires with one another and using time. in a prudent way, but by having one desire: to do your will, to grow in love. May this be the one desire that unites all of his desires and leads him to peace. Amen.

This is a prayer asking God to help someone grow in love. There are of course many ways to ask for this most important of virtues.

Transcript:

Come Holy spirit, Kindle in Leslie, the fire of your love. help her to grow in love that she might love you with all her heart and all her soul. and all her strength, and all her mind. And that she might love her neighbor as herself. Help her to see and trust and believe that love is the most important thing number to see it's supremacy, help her to see its glory, Spirit, kindle in Leslie the fire of your love. Amen.

Patience is so beautiful. I overlooked it for many years and I pray you find its beauty soon. The word patience for me has felt weary, yet I pray you can come to see the grace and power of it and come to desire it. I pray for it here in the sense of unhurriedness and gentleness, but of course there are other rich landscapes of patience to explore.

Transcript:

Come, holy spirit, I ask for the grace of patience I ask that you would help me be unhurried. As I go about my day. Help me to spend most of my time in the present moment. Not thinking about things that have already happened or may happen. But being with you in the present moment, and with the people, you've put in my life in the place that you've put me. Help me to be gentle with others, with myself. with the things that I hold with my hands help me to let go of what feels like a need to ensure things go a certain way, to draw from anger and tension, to try to force something. help me to let go of that to experience the joy of being gentle. Amen.

This is a prayer for freedom and grace to interact with social media in healthy ways. Social media is a powerful amplifier of fears and discontentment, and this prayer is for the freedom to interact with other people in human and loving ways, to help them and serve them and encourage them from a stable center of being loved by God and deeply satisfied in him.

Transcript:

Come Holy Spirit, free Kevin from the power of social media, from its addictive power.

May he be immune. from the strong draw. to use it to look for approval, and attention. validation from other people. may not be looking for awards from other people, all. may be free to serve them and love.

May his heart be set on the rewards that are held in your hand that have nothing to do with social media. May he be joyfully content to serve you and love you in obscurity and in humility and secrecy, and to feel at peace in that without any need. to trumpet it or try to get make sure that other people know about it. Look for something from them.

May he be free to serve others in love, without needing anything from them. Amen.

This prayer comes from thinking about how Jesus talks about food and drink in the sermon on the mount. It also comes from the idea that we use many kinds of things to dull ourselves to our pain and inner thirst for God, and food and drink is one of them.

Transcript:

Come, holy Spirit, I pray for Rusty that you would give him freedom from food and drink. May they be to him. gifts from you to be received with gratitude and humility but not things that control him. Not things that dominate his mind. May he be able to go without them for the sake of love. May he be able to remember those who are without daily food and drink, and be kindled with compassion for them. Amen.

This prayer was written by Reinhold Neibuhr. My friend Ian introduced me to the full prayer, which helped me see the beauty of it. Before that, I had known only the first few lines, which although beautiful, seem somewhat more like a platitude without the rest of it.

Transcript:

God, grant Andrew the serenity to accept the things that he cannot change. the courage to change the things that he can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time. accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, taking as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as he would have it. trusting that you will make all things right if he surrenders to your will, so that he may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with you forever and the next. Amen.