Use these simple practices to connect with with the
spirit and find rest for your soul.
Breath Prayer
A simple, intimate prayer of heartfelt desire before God.
Start by taking 2-3 slow breaths.
Take time to notice how your body is feeling.
Invite God to join you in this space.
Breathe IN, meditating on a word, phrase, or name of God.
Breathe OUT sharing a simple God given desire.
Breathe slowly & take your time.
EXAMPLES:
(breathe in) LORD JESUS,
(breathe out) HAVE MERCY.
(breathe in) FATHER GOD
(breathe out) GIVE ME PEACE.
(breathe in) WHEN I AM AFRAID,
(breathe out)I PUT MY TRUST IN YOU.
(breathe in) HOLY SPIRIT,
(breathe out) BE NEAR.
Take time to notice how your body is feeling.
Invite God to join you in this space.
Breathe IN, meditating on a word, phrase, or name of God.
Breathe OUT sharing a simple God given desire.
Breathe slowly & take your time.
EXAMPLES:
(breathe in) LORD JESUS,
(breathe out) HAVE MERCY.
(breathe in) FATHER GOD
(breathe out) GIVE ME PEACE.
(breathe in) WHEN I AM AFRAID,
(breathe out)I PUT MY TRUST IN YOU.
(breathe in) HOLY SPIRIT,
(breathe out) BE NEAR.
Prayer of Examen
To notice both God and your God-given desires throughout the day.
Developing a rhythm of coming into the presence of God to ask,
‘When today did I have the deepest sense of connection with God,
others and myself? When today did I have the least sense of connection?’
Start by taking 2-3 full, deep breaths and settling in.
Reflect on your day.
Give thanks to God for all the things you're grateful for today.
Ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit's wisdom and discernment.
Review and recognize failures, the moments in the day where you made mistakes.
Ask God for forgiveness and healing so that you can move on.
Pray for tomorrow, asking for help with any moments that might be difficult.
‘When today did I have the deepest sense of connection with God,
others and myself? When today did I have the least sense of connection?’
Start by taking 2-3 full, deep breaths and settling in.
Reflect on your day.
Give thanks to God for all the things you're grateful for today.
Ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit's wisdom and discernment.
Review and recognize failures, the moments in the day where you made mistakes.
Ask God for forgiveness and healing so that you can move on.
Pray for tomorrow, asking for help with any moments that might be difficult.
Praying God’s Word
When we pray prayers from the Bible, it can help us to have hearts like God’s own
heart.
Take 3-5 minutes to pray through one these prayers from the Bible. We believe that God’s Word (the Bible) is alive and its prayers are just as powerful for our lives today as they were when they were written.
Jesus’ own prayer
(Also, called the Lord’s prayer) Matthew 6:9-13
Pray this prayer that Jesus taught to His disciples. Feel free to add specifics as you ask
for your daily bread or as you ask for forgiveness!
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.”
Psalm 63
Pray this prayer when you are longing for more of God.
You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water.
I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.
Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
I cling to you;
your right hand upholds me.
Those who want to kill me will be destroyed;
they will go down to the depths of the earth.
They will be given over to the sword
and become food for jackals.
But the king will rejoice in God;
all who swear by God will glory in him,
while the mouths of liars will be silenced.
Psalm 103
This is a great Psalm to pray when you’re feeling thankful!
Praise the Lord, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
The Lord works righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses,
his deeds to the people of Israel:
The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
The life of mortals is like grass,
they flourish like a flower of the field;
the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.
But from everlasting to everlasting
the Lord’s love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children’s children—
with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts.
The Lord has established his throne in heaven,
and his kingdom rules over all.
Praise the Lord, you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his bidding,
who obey his word.
Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts,
you his servants who do his will.
Praise the Lord, all his works
everywhere in his dominion.
Praise the Lord, my soul.
Jesus’ own prayer
(Also, called the Lord’s prayer) Matthew 6:9-13
Pray this prayer that Jesus taught to His disciples. Feel free to add specifics as you ask
for your daily bread or as you ask for forgiveness!
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.”
Psalm 63
Pray this prayer when you are longing for more of God.
You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water.
I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.
Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
I cling to you;
your right hand upholds me.
Those who want to kill me will be destroyed;
they will go down to the depths of the earth.
They will be given over to the sword
and become food for jackals.
But the king will rejoice in God;
all who swear by God will glory in him,
while the mouths of liars will be silenced.
Psalm 103
This is a great Psalm to pray when you’re feeling thankful!
Praise the Lord, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
The Lord works righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses,
his deeds to the people of Israel:
The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
The life of mortals is like grass,
they flourish like a flower of the field;
the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.
But from everlasting to everlasting
the Lord’s love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children’s children—
with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts.
The Lord has established his throne in heaven,
and his kingdom rules over all.
Praise the Lord, you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his bidding,
who obey his word.
Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts,
you his servants who do his will.
Praise the Lord, all his works
everywhere in his dominion.
Praise the Lord, my soul.
Popular Prayers of others
Pray these pre-written prayers to help you express your thoughts to God.
Take 10 minutes to pray through one these prayers written by someone else. Sometimes pre-written prayers can help express things you may not have thought of on your own. Find a quiet spot and prayer these words out loud or in silent, knowing that God hears you and is present through each word and thought. Prayer through the chosen prayer 2-3 times, spending time quietly listening in between.
St. Francis of Assisi’s Prayer: Make me an instrument of peace.
Prayer for peace.
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
and 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 pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
A Liturgy for Fleeting Irritation from Every Moment Holy
Prayer for when you’re irritated by others!
I bring to you Lord, my momentary irritation,
That you might reveal the buried seed of it-
not in the words or actions of another person,
but in the withered and hypocritical expectations of my own small heart.
Uproot from this impoverished soil all arrogance and insecurity that would prompt me to
dismiss or disdain others,
judging them with a less generous measure than I reckon when judging myself.
Prune away the tangled growth of my own unjustified irritations, Jesus, and graft to my
heart instead your humility,
your compassion,
your patience,
your kindness,
That I might bear good fruit in keeping with your grace.
Amen
The Serenity Prayer
God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
As it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will;
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life
And supremely happy with Him
Forever and ever in the next.
Amen
A Liturgy for the Anniversary of a Loss from Every Moment Holy
Pray this prayer on the anniversary of a hard loss in your life.
I have felt its approach in the back of my mind,
O Lord, like a burden tilting
toward me across the calendar.
I have felt it’s long approach,
And now it has arrived.
This is the day that marks the anniversary of my loss,
And walking to it, I must drink again from the stream of
A sorrow that cannot be fully remedied in this life.
O Christ, redeem this day.
I do not ask that these lingerings of grief be erased, but
that the fingers of your grace would work this memory
as a baker kneads a dough, till the leaven of
rising hope transforms it from within, into
a form holding now in that same sorrow the
surety of your presence, so that when I
look again at the loss, I see you
in the deepest gloom of it,
weeping with me,
even as I hear you whispering that
this is not the end, but only
the still grey of the dawn
before the world begins.
And if that is so, then let that which broke me upon this day
in a past year, now be seen as the beginning
of my remaking into a Christ-follower more sympathetic,
more compassionate and more conscious of my frailty and
of my daily dependence on you; as one more invested
in the hope of the resurrection of the body
and the return of the King,
than ever I had been before.
Let this loss-hallowed day arrive in years to come
as the kindling of a fire in my bones, spurring me to
seek in this short life that which is eternal.
Let the past wound and the memory of it, push me
to be present with you in ways that I was not before.
Do not waste my greatest sorrows, Oh God, but
use them to teach me to live in your presence-
fully alive to pain and joy, and sorrow and hope-
In the places where my shattering
and your shaping meet.
Amen
St. Francis of Assisi’s Prayer: Make me an instrument of peace.
Prayer for peace.
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
and 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 pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
A Liturgy for Fleeting Irritation from Every Moment Holy
Prayer for when you’re irritated by others!
I bring to you Lord, my momentary irritation,
That you might reveal the buried seed of it-
not in the words or actions of another person,
but in the withered and hypocritical expectations of my own small heart.
Uproot from this impoverished soil all arrogance and insecurity that would prompt me to
dismiss or disdain others,
judging them with a less generous measure than I reckon when judging myself.
Prune away the tangled growth of my own unjustified irritations, Jesus, and graft to my
heart instead your humility,
your compassion,
your patience,
your kindness,
That I might bear good fruit in keeping with your grace.
Amen
The Serenity Prayer
God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
As it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will;
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life
And supremely happy with Him
Forever and ever in the next.
Amen
A Liturgy for the Anniversary of a Loss from Every Moment Holy
Pray this prayer on the anniversary of a hard loss in your life.
I have felt its approach in the back of my mind,
O Lord, like a burden tilting
toward me across the calendar.
I have felt it’s long approach,
And now it has arrived.
This is the day that marks the anniversary of my loss,
And walking to it, I must drink again from the stream of
A sorrow that cannot be fully remedied in this life.
O Christ, redeem this day.
I do not ask that these lingerings of grief be erased, but
that the fingers of your grace would work this memory
as a baker kneads a dough, till the leaven of
rising hope transforms it from within, into
a form holding now in that same sorrow the
surety of your presence, so that when I
look again at the loss, I see you
in the deepest gloom of it,
weeping with me,
even as I hear you whispering that
this is not the end, but only
the still grey of the dawn
before the world begins.
And if that is so, then let that which broke me upon this day
in a past year, now be seen as the beginning
of my remaking into a Christ-follower more sympathetic,
more compassionate and more conscious of my frailty and
of my daily dependence on you; as one more invested
in the hope of the resurrection of the body
and the return of the King,
than ever I had been before.
Let this loss-hallowed day arrive in years to come
as the kindling of a fire in my bones, spurring me to
seek in this short life that which is eternal.
Let the past wound and the memory of it, push me
to be present with you in ways that I was not before.
Do not waste my greatest sorrows, Oh God, but
use them to teach me to live in your presence-
fully alive to pain and joy, and sorrow and hope-
In the places where my shattering
and your shaping meet.
Amen
Sing your Prayers
Sing along to a worship song or a Hymn to rest in God.
Let your prayers rise up like a song to the Lord! This is a practice you can do in your car. Spend time in quiet reflection or loud exuberant singing to worship songs and Hymns.
If you need so suggestions of songs; try these lists:
If you need so suggestions of songs; try these lists: