We can talk with God in many ways. I find just plain conversation with the Trinity like friends having coffee or lifting praise and gratitude to be essential methods for me. Written prayers, working to find just the right words to articulate my desires, sorrows, hopes in my journals are prayers. Of course, silence is also holy time.
But sometimes using the words from other people connects best with God. I call these borrowed prayers. I love to gather and tuck these prayers into my journal, my Bible, and my heart. Sometimes I paraphrase them based on their framework but using my own words. Occasionally I pause at the end of one phrase unable to finish and linger in the midst of their prayer. Their words offer a branch at times to lead me into a new prayer for myself bringing insight, surprises, and peace.
Here are a few of my favorite borrowed prayers:
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though
I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
Thomas Merton
Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will,
All I have and call my own. You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.
Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace, that is enough for me.
Ignatius Loyola
My God I am all yours. Brother Lawrence
Govern everything by your wisdom, O Lord, so that my soul may always be serving you in the way you will and not as I choose. Let me die to myself so that I may serve you; let me live to you who are life itself. Amen. Theresa of Avila
So many prayers from the Bible such as “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner” Luke 18:13 and “I do believe; help my unbelief!” Mark 9: 24.
I know there are many other famous and longer prayers. I have others copied in my journals but these are the ones I most use.
Do you use borrowed prayers? If so, please share the ones that touch your heart.
Which ones above move you the most?