Prayers for Strength
These are prayers for endurance rather than rescue — for the long illness, the difficult job, the caregiving that has no end date, the season you cannot leave.
They ask for God's strength precisely because your own has run out. That admission is the starting point of most of them.
18 prayers
- A Prayer for Caregivers
A contemporary pastoral prayer for those caring for the sick, the elderly, the disabled, or a family member in crisis, drawing on Isaiah…
- A Prayer for Doctors, Nurses, and Caregivers
A contemporary prayer for healthcare workers, drawing on the ancient title of Christus Medicus — Christ the Physician — used by the Church…
- A Prayer for Freedom from Addiction
A contemporary pastoral prayer drawing on the recovery tradition that grew out of the Oxford Group and Alcoholics Anonymous, and on the…
- A Prayer in Chronic Illness
A contemporary pastoral prayer for long-term illness, disability, and pain, closing with God's answer to Paul's unhealed "thorn in the…
- A Prayer in Depression
A contemporary pastoral prayer in the tradition of Psalm 42 and 88 — psalms the Church has always kept in its prayer book precisely because…
- A Prayer When Life Feels Unbearable
A contemporary pastoral prayer for moments of despair, grounded in Christ's own agony in Gethsemane and cry of abandonment from the cross.…
- Benediction of Hebrews
A benediction from Hebrews 13:20-21 asking God to complete His good work in those He blesses.
- Elijah's Prayer on Mount Carmel
Two verses against four hundred and fifty prophets: 'Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God.' A…
- Gaze, Consider, Contemplate (St. Clare of Assisi)
From St. Clare of Assisi's Second Letter to Agnes of Prague (thirteenth century). Clare's counsel — gaze, consider, contemplate, imitate —…
- Habakkuk's Prayer — Yet I Will Rejoice
The closing lines of Habakkuk (3:17–19), written as Judah faced invasion. The prophet spends the book arguing with God about injustice and…
- Let Me Not Live to Be Useless (John Wesley)
John Wesley's plea — recorded in his journals and letters — joined to the rule of life for which he is most remembered. It is prayed by…
- Paul's Prayer for Inner Strength (Ephesians 3)
From Ephesians 3:14–21, written from prison. Unlike most petitions it asks for nothing external — only interior strength, indwelling, and…
- Prayer Against Oppression
Catholic theology distinguishes several degrees of extraordinary demonic activity — temptation, oppression, obsession, infestation and,…
- Prayer Against Temptation
A prayer for the moment of trial, built around the pattern of Christ's own temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11) and closing with…
- Prayer for Generosity (St. Ignatius of Loyola)
Attributed to St. Ignatius of Loyola and popularized by the Jesuits. Its five refusals of self-protection have made it a favorite prayer of…
- Prayer of St. Augustine — Breathe in Me, O Holy Spirit
St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) converted after years of restless searching, famously praying, "You have made us for yourself, and our…
- Prayer to Jesus (St. Anselm of Canterbury)
Adapted from St. Anselm of Canterbury's Prayers and Meditations, written for lay people in the eleventh century so that they could pray…
- Prayer to Overcome Our Spiritual Enemies
A prayer against the three traditional enemies of the soul — the world, the flesh and the devil — a formula found in the Church's…