Prayer for a Lost Soul

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Contemplare

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Please include me in your intentions as I am a lost soul. I used to have a good relationship with God but it seems that I feel like God has turned his back on me and I feel lost - everything’s wrong in my life right now.
 
At this time of my life…

Jesus, my cross is sorrow for others in their anxieties and afflictions, and in the limited help and comfort that I can give them. The nails are my mistakes and inadequacies that distress or fail others. No sooner do I inhale the breath of Your grace for others than it fouls with my failings. I must again drag up on my nailed wrists and push up upon my transfixed feet, in order to exhale the vapour of lukewarmness and sinfulness—so once again to draw in Your grace.

The faults that characterise much of my life, scourge my soul until it is bruised and faint, sapping my hope and faith. Acts devoid of generous love lash into the wholeness of Your image in me. I am sick with hunger, for I accept too little food of loving, sharing and serving in each moment of Your offering. My hunger is the more intense because others may suffer deprivation for my omissions and sinfulness.

A crown of idle thoughts, and words, of prayer neglected, of reparation postponed, of temptation undefeated, binds up my head with wounds. My inconstancy and unlove are my nakedness. The taunts are my lack of witness of Christ. My every nerve is pain, and it pours from my body in stinging sweat of regret.

My lack of love makes my soul a living wound—at times benumbed, or raw with returning consciousness. Repeatedly I seek to escape this crucifixion, but I remain nailed to my weakness, fighting for hope and trust.

“Why do You abandon me, Lord?” Yet not You! Why do You allow me repeatedly to abandon You, in this lingering death of my faults and negligence! Yet, Jesus, because of Your mercy I affirm faith in Your love that brings marvellous blessing out of wretchedness, failure and sin. I cannot transform or resurrect myself, Jesus, but I offer You all that constitutes me, humbly asking that You will do what I cannot.

I give my self, crucified in its egoism and materialism, its pride and disobedience, its unbelief, unlove and ingratitude. Offer it to the Father with Your own crucifixion, so that in You I die to all these imperfections and rise again with You forever in the love and life of the Holy Spirit. Your mercy thereby draws many souls after me. Thank You, Jesus for this resurrection that You share with us.
 
Springtime garden

Our God, I have lived in the winter of selfishness, choked by weeds of discouragement.
I have feared my betrayal of Your love and sacrifice for me. I have grieved for my offences against Your goodness and against other people.
I have feared atrophy of my soul, and the deprivation of others whom You desire to love through me! Now I lift up my being in joyful thanksgiving.

As with a new Spring, let goodness grow in me, enriched with our Saviour’s merit and nurtured in faith, hope, Sacrament and prayer. Let Your Holy Spirit germinate in me the gifts of truth, wisdom, fortitude, understanding, counsel, and reverence, then, this garden that Your mercy forms out of wasteland, shall glorify You as it blossoms, fruits and scatters seed of witness and service.

Thus shall You, and anyone who enters the garden of my life, find richness of love, faith, joy, truth, gentleness, and peace. Let it be a haven, a refuge, a place of contemplation, a source of nourishment for others, a loving witness of Your love.

Life-of-my-garden, our God—come walk in the wonders that You have created, and rejoice! For I have lived in wintry emptiness, smothered by weeds of sin, discouragement and confusion. I have feared the betrayal of Your redemption in the wilderness of my life. I grieved for my offences to Your infinite goodness and mourned for my deprivation of souls whom You wished to serve through me, yet I was unable to change.

Now I am reclaimed by Your merciful Redemption. I lift my spirit in thanksgiving and love that perfumes this garden through all the changing seasons of my life.

Harvest

Beloved Jesus—from the compost of my sins, failures, faults and omissions please enrich the soil that nurtures the harvest that You prepare of my being and life—for Your delight, and for others’ benefit.

From the flower and fruit of all grace and good sprung from You within me, please bountifully glorify Yourself and bless all whose lives touch mine!

“Upon every person God loves, in order to bring them to God’s bliss, God imposes something that is not a defect in God’s sight, but is a reason why they are humbled and despised in this world, scorned, mocked and cast out. This God does to prevent the harm they would suffer from the pretence and vanities of this wretched life, to make ready their way to heaven and to the state of eternal happiness. For God says, ‘I shall tear you away from your vain affections and vicious pride. Then I shall gather you, and make you meek and mild, pure and holy by uniting you to Me’.” (Revelations to Julian of Norwich)
 
Following Christ

Heavenly Father, please nurture me as a true disciple of Jesus so that I seek only to serve and to share my life for others, as daily I live my responsibilities and creative inspirations, following Jesus in trust, humility, purity of heart, and freedom of spirit.

Please centre me in Your love so that I desire Your will in everything, thus my thoughts and attitudes, words and acts, transformed by You, shall give You glory, serving charity, justice and peace for those I pray for or encounter.

By this means, my spiritual and material endowments shall be shared fraternally, again and again with others. Then You may look on me and find no fault in me, but rejoice in Your dearly loved child, formed in image of Jesus. With trust, I make this prayer in His name.

Commitment

God, for sake of souls, I commit myself and my entire life—past, present and future—to Your mercy and love. I welcome Your unlimited power to use me, not merely finitely, but infinitely, in Your service.

Have mercy upon everyone You wish to benefit through me, and do not let my limitations or doubts curtail Your use of me as of blessing to others or as vessel of honour to You.

My faults are fragile barriers to the flood of Your grace, as I live Your will and have faith in Your powerful love. I trust in Your love to accept this submission and make it complete. Please deepen my trust in Your will to use Your limitless power of love even in me.
 
The Gospel way

Jesus and Mary, you lived with Joseph in holy ordinariness, loving others as yourselves and God above all. You lived in prayer and penance, in wondering and in faith, in obedience and chastity. You lived in daily labour offered to God in simplicity and love. Please guide me along this gospel path, so that the God delights in my life and finds it a useful tool to bring closer the coming of the kingdom.

I thank God for the ordinary yet precious gifts I have received…of Creation and redemption…of persons whom I cherish…of my life, personality and individual identity…of my soul, mind, and body…of the little treasures God has given me for His delight and for others’ benefit. I desire to love God above all and others with God’s love. I confess my sinfulness, accepting forgiveness and grace, knowing that God is my strength and virtue. I can only serve in faith and faithfulness as you did, knowing that God loves me in my lowliness.

Jesus and Mary, please unite me with you in loving, prayerful service. Through God’s merciful love and your merits, I offer each moment of my life in its ordinariness. Please make me worthy of your kinship, so that I honour God while serving others, even if the effects are hidden from me. For in my trust and self-surrender, God may flood grace in living gospel through me for the sake of the kingdom.

I praise and thank God, who stoops with tender, loving humility to touch, transform, and share His life, His Son, His Spirit of love and truth, with anyone as ordinary as I am!

Thy Kingdom come

God, I am unworthy to be Your child and often drift from Your ways. I am an average, faulty human being—to myself, I am ‘just me’.

However,* in the name of Your Creation and its redemption, of the incarnation, resurrection and ascension of Jesus… of Your Spirit, of the sacred priesthood, of the Sacraments… of Mary, of the Saints and Angels…For sake of the blood shed in Your name and of everything ever offered or endured for Your Kingdom…For sake of all forgiveness, of all joy given by You in time and eternity, of everything beloved by You…In the name of Your merciful love, of all manifestations of Your goodness and glory, of Your perfect essence*—Loving God, may the woman crush the head of Satan, driving all evil spirits back to hell, sealed therein.

Let humankind be drawn into You in genuine repentance, atonement and continual conversion. Let us live in loving communion, in mutual care and holiness, filled with gratitude and praise for You our God.

In Your great love, let Your will be done fully in and through me. Grant to Yourself and others, the ‘me’ whom You conceive in Your heart from all eternity
 
Grant me Your Spirit

Holy Spirit, I need wisdom, discernment and unconditional love. Will You share Yours with me? Help me to persevere in these necessary virtues, even where there is wounding within me greater than anyone is aware.

Help me to carry my daily responsibilities with faith and hope, and mindful of Your command to love God above all and others as self, in Sacramental worship and with practical acts of kindness.

Help me to find healing for injuries and scars that prevent me from fully becoming the person I am created to be. Come into my mind and soul, and help me through the rest of my life.

I need You, Holy Spirit. Please access the gifts and beauty of my unique creation in God’s image. For others’ benefit and for Your glory, give me a deep appreciation and use of the goodness, loveliness joy and blessing of this creation that You mean me to be.August 2004
“Pray for a strong spirit, the Spirit of God. And thank God often for yourself, for His gift to you.” Priest in Confession, Divine Mercy Sunday

Truth and unity through the Spirit

God, You see the unworthy, vacillating person that I am but You also see the wonderful being who You created me to be! Loving me thus, through Your Spirit make me so. Through grace and Sacrament, please in my life exemplify the beatitudes and bring Your gifts to fruit, so that I embody gospel love and truth.

With Jesus, I trust You to remain with me forever so that I may know, love, and belong completely to You; and that I may understand, remember, and obey all that Jesus taught. I trust Your Holy Spirit to prove through Your truth to the unbelieving and to myself, that we are wrong regarding modern views of sin, life, and judgement so we return to gospel truth in the Body of Christ.

Holy Spirit, I trust You to help me retrain my thought patterns to make me perceptive, discerning and mature. Make my prayer inspired and efficacious. Speak clearly in my thoughts, words and actions. Give me trust in Your inspiration and indwelling. Make me gentle and compassionate even in times of stress. Give me generosity to joyfully serve every person as Your beloved. Let Your love flow gently through me to everyone whom my life touches, healing and blessing us and giving us true peace.

Holy Spirit please come down on me, and make me whole; and make me one with the Father, the Son, and Your holy Self, together with all who serve through Your power. Spirit of God, through the merit of Jesus, please transform every thought, word and act of my life, into pure, loving, loveliness in the sight of the God.
[Based on St. John’s gospel]
God bless you. God’s grace is evident in your request! have trust in His love and leading even if you see and feel nothing, love, Trishie
 
In the presence of God

God, I cannot see, hear, or feel You, but I am in Your presence. I gaze at You with faith that sees nothing yet believes. Trust in Your merciful love with hope in Your reality, brings peace even when my limitations and sinfulness barb my human heart.

I am inconstant and selfish, yet unafraid and hopeful, for You rejoice in the sincere, contrite person who comes trustingly before You. I welcome Your forgiveness for my sins and omissions, confident that You will glorify Yourself in me—by being my thoughts, my efforts, my love, my truth, my wisdom, my whole life, prayer, and existence!

As I have no merit of my own, so may You, the more, glorify Yourself in me! Please flood me with Your love, transforming me into Your substance. Thus, even if I remain in seemingly unconverted darkness, I shall be continual offering to You of the perfection of Your own all-creating, all-knowing, all-loving, all-good, harmonious, selfless Self-Love that created me.

Let Your love continually flow into anyone whose life touches mine, so that I am witness and experience of Your love for him or her. I pray, and trust, that You utter within me for others, all prayer that You desire to offer and grant in the love that issues from Your infinite presence.

Thank You God, for although I do not see, hear, or feel You, our God, I know that by Your life in me I am always with You. 1983

“Do not grieve…that you were born in a time when you can no longer see God in the flesh. That privilege was not taken from you. As Jesus says, ‘Whatever you have done for the least of my little ones, you have done for me.’” Saint Augustine.

God if I really knew Your love

Great God, I barely realise my blindness, deafness, and ignorance before You. I suspect the truths of Your love as distant music, though I yearn to know and love You. I desire to be pure, zealous and faithful after example of Jesus and Mary, so that through me, You may channel love and blessing to many others.

If I really knew You, God, if I knew Your love, goodness and power, Your ways and thoughts beyond all earthly kind, then what would I ask, seek, and offer to You and to others’ souls for Your sake! How would I live and serve, if I knew, and truly loved! What would I ask of You, of the Mother, of each Saint and Angel, in daring trust? These I ask anyway, although I am sinful, ignorant, and lukewarm!

My heart reaches out in quiet faith to the Father who is infinite Creator so great that He intimately cherishes each of billions of lowly creatures throughout the ages. My heart reaches out *to follow the Son whom He surrendered to creature-hood and to death-that-rose, drawing each person into relationship with God. *My heart reaches out to touch the Spirit, who transforms all things.

My self-interest undermines my spiritual vitality and efficacious service. I am an erratic, ordinary person, yet in Your intention, I am a glorious reflection of Your love.

No prayer and goodwill can free me from sinfulness, but with faith, I leap over this deadly barrier. For even as I strive or fail, I trustfully ask You to judge me neither by sin nor by merit, but only by Your love! Free me from Your judgement even in my flaws that may separate us or impede the flood of Your goodness through my life to others. I take to myself no merit to clothe my pride or to secure glory in heaven or on earth—so that You may apply these to other souls in need.

God, if by no judgement of my merit or sin do You love and act through me—then Your wisdom, goodness and life can engulf and flow from me to others. This music—of love and holiness, of You within us—may be pitched to perfection, beyond earthly perception. Yet please let each moment (each atom, all thought, word, and act, each frailty and each grace) of my life be transformed in Your love. Let it be formed into exquisite notes of Your eternal symphony to delight and praise You far beyond my understanding.

With faith, I offer You my daily duty and routine, with its joy, prayer, hope, and struggle. Let Your Spirit pray and fulfil in me all that I would become, seek, ask, and do, if Your love and truth were known to me. This, God is the lifelong prayer of this sinful, contrite, hopeful creature.

In case you’re wondering. Contemplare, I wrote all this stuff in search of God over a period of time, though I think simple honest talking to God out of your real self and your true feelings and thoughts is best
 
Finally…
I don’t think you’re as ‘bad’ as you think you are!

Appreciating others

Jesus, I honour You for others goodness. Yet, help me to share Your compassion, respect and delight in those who seem (to themselves or others)to reflect Your face poorly. Grant me the gift of conveying to each person, the beautiful, glimpsed vision of self, as You love him or her, a fallible human with entwined faults and virtues.

One sometimes glimpses another’s discouraged self-judgement, for he fears that Your plan of salvation builds upon some unlikely ‘ideal self’. He perhaps hopes that to others, only the good is evident. He fears that were others to sense the extent of his unworthiness, they may reject him—as indeed he fears You may.

Jesus, please extend Your hand to him through those who see his efforts and who have faith in the secret, unique miracle of him. Let him know that You love him as he is, and that You plan his holiness around his actual self.

You fulfil Your dream of him and serve others through his flawed personality with its abilities, gifts and virtues, along with its faults and scars. Assure him that his efforts to live the Gospel are more precious because of his temptations and flaws, so that he is encouraged to faith and self-acceptance.

Our Jesus, let me see and share Your beautiful, unique, creative vision of each brother and sister, regardless of ‘apparent’ flaws. In my warm acceptance of him grant to each person that restoring, blossoming fruitfulness of love—which the image of him cherished and accepted as he really is—produces in the most barren and bleak heart. 1982
My brother, “Do not be afraid, you will not be put to shame.” [Isaiah 54:4]
 
Contemplare said:
Please include me in your intentions as I am a lost soul. I used to have a good relationship with God but it seems that I feel like God has turned his back on me and I feel lost - everything’s wrong in my life right now.
Click to expand...
Hi Contemplare.I read you post and felt so sad.You had a good relationship with God once,you can have that again.
We are all sinners,we all fall from the right path from time to time, becuase we are human we are not perfect.It is how we try to come back to the Lord and show love to others in our daily lives that will help repair our relationship with God. The prayer the Our Father teaches us all we need to know " forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us".In life if we can try to forgive those who hurt us,God will forgive us also.This is not easy but we can at least try.
Go to confession and pray daily and talk to God ,He will hear you and you will feel Him in your life once again.
May God bless you

Our Blessed Lady please pray for our friend Contemplare who feels lost and far away from the Lord.Please intercede for him that he will find his way back Amen
Memorare (Prayer to Our Lady)
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help, or sought your intercession, was left unaided.
Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto you, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother. To you do I come, before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in your mercy, hear and answer me. Amen
 
Praying for your intentions….

Lord Jesus, You have said,
“Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.”
With confidence in Your loving heart
which offers rest to weary souls,
we come to You in this time of special need.
In Your unfailing love,
read the prayer that is written on our hearts,
and grant the grace that we ask of You,
in accordance with Your holy will.
In Your name we pray.
Amen.
 
Contemplare said:
Please include me in your intentions as I am a lost soul. I used to have a good relationship with God but it seems that I feel like God has turned his back on me and I feel lost - everything’s wrong in my life right now.
Click to expand...
I can’t pretend to know exactly where you are, but I feel like I could have written that a earlier time in my life.

If feels dark, but pray anyway. The prayers we say even in our darkest times when it seems like nobody is listening are in fact super powerful. Please trust me that He is listening. Pray prayers you know by heart and pray by just talking to God. Say what is in your heart even if it seems silly to your ears.

And I will pray the Rosary for you. ((hug))
 
I pray that you may find God in your life … God is always there for you, remember that!
 
Just remember the story of the prodigal son. God welcomes back people that have strayed with open arms hes always waiting for you.

Our Father who art in Heaven
Hallowed be thy name
Thy Kingdom come
Thy Will be done
On Earth as it is in Heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against us
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil
Amen
 
Our Blessed Lady please pray for our friend Contemplare who feels lost and far away from the Lord.Please intercede for him that he will find his way back Amen
Memorare (Prayer to Our Lady)
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help, or sought your intercession, was left unaided.
Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto you, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother. To you do I come, before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in your mercy, hear and answer me. Amen
 
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