Daily Prayer

Lord All-powerful, I pray to you for daily bread, a safe roof, the necessary health, a day without accidents, and a quiet night.
Grant me the vigor to endure the worries and tribulations that emerge from life's vicissitudes.
Lord, preserve today and always the light of my eyes, the use of my intelligence and senses.
I pray, do not close my heart to human feelings,  nor cross my arms when faced with the demands of human love.
Lord, keep away from my path the pitfalls of injustice and slander.
By your grace, I will set my mind to live in peace with everyone, to respect their customs, their right to express opinions, to disagree, and to defend themselves.
I will, in your name, cultivate the unity of family, the good will of my neighbors and my colleagues, the faithfulness of my friends, and peace toward all.
Lord, I beg your blessing for each hour of my day and for all the days of my life.

Prayer Before Work

Eternal Lord, you have created work so that we can value our lives.
Through work you give each one of us the opportunity to learn to overcome obstacles and to feel the taste of accomplishment.
Work has become a sentinel to virtue, making it possible to have peace, health, abundance, and ease.
We are privileged because you stand by, Lord, with your positive and encouraging inspiration.
With the good disposition you offer us, we discover through our work the joy of living.
Lord, you gave us this spice of life and the opportunity to serve your purposes.
Without work, we do not experience satisfaction nor receive valuable rewards.
Thanks to you, Lord, we know how to work and to put our imprint on the world for useful changes.
Without work, life seems to be ship adrift at sea.
With work, we are leaders and captains of our lives.
Thank you, Lord, for the grace of being able to begin and to accomplish, as well as we can, all our tasks.

Prayer for the Sick

Compassionate Lord, I am deeply concerned with the health of someone dear to me.
My greatest wish is that this person may resume work and a normal life with family and friends.
Lord God, Merciful God, with insistence I commend this person's health to your care.
My prayer arises from the bottom of my heart to you, the source of life and salvation.
I know you do not rejoice in the affliction of your children.
My anxiety does not lead me to despair because I trust you.
Grant me what I confidently beg of you.
My heart will proclaim your praise.
I place in your hands, Lord God, Merciful God, the fate of this sick person, who has been suffering so much.
Speed the happy day of recovery.
Already now, touched by the knowledge of your compassion, I bless your holy name.

Prayer to Calm the Spirit

Calm me down, Lord, with your presence.
Open my heart to the smooth flowing of your serene spirit.
I am grateful to find this calm moment in your presence.
For I have been too excited, too busy with many activities.
I want to rest, Lord, in the shade of your power and love.
Restore my strength as only you know how.
Lord, I entered the battle with all my heart, and did not shrink from helping others who needed me.
Your kindness now rests on me like the pacifying blessing I have been yearning for.
No disquiet stirs in me, because you lead me to the sweet repose of a clear and quiet conscience.
I try to fulfill my part in creation and in the harmony of life.
Lord, overshadow me with your blessing.
Working side by side with my brothers and sisters for a better world, I find the meaning of my life.
Give me the opportunity to soothe my spirit.
I take refuge in you, Lord.

Prayer During Loneliness

Lord, I feel like a traveler in the desert, utterly alone.
I know that there are people close by, but it seems as if I live on an island without inhabitants.
You know that I cannot endure it any more; that is why I speak to you with all my heart's strength.
Already I feel, Lord--from the moment I uttered the first words to you--that I am coming out of my solitude.
How good it is to escape the trap of a sick and heavy solitude and meet with you.
Lord, you reassure me that I am never alone.
You are always with me, my sure companion in hours of insecurity.
Lord, your silence does not mean that you are distant.
Your invisible company never leaves my side.
I need only be more attentive to your presence.

Prayer for Peace

Blessed are you, King of the Universe, who has created this world.
Generation after generation, human beings praise your deeds.
Your powerful actions proclaim love to all.
Through the words of prophets and psalmists, you have announced to all the world the value, importance, and the need for peace.
Show and teach us, Lord, your paths that lead all peoples to understand the value of peace.
You listen with love and protect the weak and downtrodden; you teach the value of freedom, justice, and fellowship.
We witness your endless dedication to humanity and your eternal love.
We proclaim your glory and we sing your praises, aware of your kindness and the miracles you perform.
We beg you, Lord our God, for the miracle of true peace.
Light our way so that we may find it.
Grant us this peace, which is your most precious gift.
Plant virtue in all our souls and turn us into pioneers of true peace.

Prayer for Patience

Eternal God, it is not easy to continue praying and waiting when time flees by so fast and nothing of what I ask for happens.
Do not become cross at me if I lack patience.
You know well, Eternal God, that there are innumerable aspects of this world that I do not understand, that I find absurd.
Help me to persevere and not to lose faith; help me to be patient with all that surrounds me--with time, with others, and with myself.
Eternal God, you know that I do not intend to impose on anyone.
At times, though, I am too hasty, too demanding.
Teach me, Eternal God, to be as patient with others and myself as you are with me.

Prayer for Happiness

We all search for happiness.
What road should I take to find it, God?
Immersed in life, I am sometimes blind, sometimes deaf.
I come to you, Lord, to find the road.
Is it true, Lord, that happiness blossoms from the thorns of struggle and achievements?
That is a distant horizon and as soon as I come close to it, it disappears?
That it depends on our soul's serenity?
Does happiness lie in the search for happiness?
In this uncertainty, in this darkness, help me, Lord.
Allow me to find it nearby, perhaps within me!
Let me live harmoniously with myself and with others.
God, give me the strength and the great joy of discovering the great secret of life:
to do what is good, to serve others with joy, to sow love, and thus be able to realize that to live in this way is true happiness.

A Wife's Prayer

My God, I thank you for the husband you gave me.
I feel as if we were born for each other.
The happiness I feel also comes with the obligation to love him as he loves me.
With tenderness I keep the memory of our early encounters.
I recall our efforts to fit together and to understand each other.
Sometimes it seems to me, my God, that he is like the plant root and I am the plant.
He is never separated from my being and with time he more and more sustains my life and enriches it.
My God, take good care of him because I love him so much; I love him just as he is.
Faithful to him, I want to be worthy of his love and fulfill our common destiny to the very end.
I hope that with your grace, my God, I will live happily with him, side by side, fulfilling my role with all my hearth.
Pour your blessing, my God, over my husband's life, over his work and concerns, and make our lives become even more beautifully united.

A Husband's Prayer

Blessed are you, my Gracious God, who gave me my wife; she became flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood.
I thank you for everything she stands for in my life.
Help me to understand, Lord, that because she is different from me and because of her unique qualities, she adds so much to what I am.
Her sensitivity and her love fulfill me harmoniously.
I promise, Lord, to stand next to her through life and to be a loving husband.
I thank you, Lord, for the way I am enriched by being in touch with her feelings.
I feel fulfilled and happy, Lord, when I can count her warm presence, sharing in all the varied aspects of my life.
She has become part of my being.
I ask you, Lord, passionately protect our love for each other.
May it always remain faithful and strong.

Prayer for One's Children

My God, source of all life, thank you for the blessing you gave me when you entrusted me with children.
I have tried faithfully to live up to your expectations.
It is not for me but for each of them that I pray.
Care for them in your great kindness.
Wherever I am lacking, supply the blessing of your protection.
You see the sincere love of my caring, small as it is, compared with what they need and deserve.
In the name of this love, keep them, along the path of life, free from evil, and make them always strong, happy, and loving.
All of them, without distinction, are a living part of my being.
My God, I want them to be better than I am.
In the midst of the rich opportunities of life, may they count on your powerful help.
Every day, as I pray for my needs, my God, I am actually praying for them.
In total confidence I place them under you divine parental care.

Prayer for Faith

I ask you, my Blessed Lord, for yet another gift.
It's not something I can see in a store window, something that money can buy.
Kindle in me your divine light, a holy spark; I do not want to be like dust blown by the wind, or a stone that falls uncontrolled down a well.
I pray for the gift of faith.
Without faith, Blessed Lord, there is no work, no progress, no harmony or peace; we do not see the sunshine or the twinkling stars as we should.
But with faith I acquire the strength and the gift of making small things great, of taking casual events seriously, of distinguishing what is common and passing from what is everlasting.
The faith I need and pray for is the link between the sacred and the profane, the communion between you and humanity; it is the source of the love I want to sow.
Give me faith, Blessed Lord, so that it be part of my innermost being and infuse my heart and mind.
With faith I want to relish the sweetness of living, and taste holiness and joy.
This is the faith I long for and need, not as an escape from life, but as an inspiration and guide for life.
Lord, give me faith today and always; may it be to me a flame that burns all of my days.

A Teacher's Prayer

God, our Master, you are the Supreme Teacher who illumines human beings with truth.
Blessed be your word of love.
God, our Father, make me your echo, and allow me to sow truth and goodness.
Blessed be your attitude, so full of understanding.
God, our Master, let me be passionate about beauty and truth, and warm my heart with your commandments.
Blessed be your light of truth, filled with blessings for us.
Grant me the gift of conveying, teaching, correcting, and indicating your ways, your shining, glorious kindness.
God, our Master, direct my mind to your truth, my hands to kind acts.
I am small and frail in you light, but allow me to fulfill my difficult mission.
Blessed be your mercy, which teaches us so much.