Jesus said ‘Do not let your hearts be trouble and do not let them be afraid’ John 14:27
This can often happen and is made worse when the situation is one that is fraught or stressful. This happens not just in conversations with other people, but sometimes in our lives of prayer.
This page provides reflections and prayers for times when relationships are difficult. I hope that in those times you will find these prayers enable you to express your hopes and fears and to reassure you that you are able to place yourself in God’s hands. When we pray, we may feel alone but we are stepping into a constant pool of prayer, which always surrounds us.
Our clergy will always be willing to arrange to talk with you about your prayer life or any matter. Please do let us know if you would like a talk with any of us
Father Bob
Footprints in the sand
One night I dreamed a dream.
As I was walking along the beach with my Lord.
Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,
One belonging to me and one to my Lord.
After the last scene of my life flashed before me,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that at many times along the path of my life,
especially at the very lowest and saddest times,
there was only one set of footprints.
This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.
“Lord, you said once I decided to follow you,
You’d walk with me all the way.
But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life,
there was only one set of footprints.
I don’t understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me.”
He whispered, “My precious child,
I love you and will never leave you never, ever,
During your trials and testings, when you saw
only one set of footprints, It was then that I carried you.”
Prayer for peace
Lord Jesus – I come to you,
I can hardly pray, words cannot express how I feel.
You know how confused I am.
Lord – I feel so helpless and angry,
I want to scream, to run away from this hurt.
Please help me to realise what has happened,
to live with the knowledge and pain,
Lord Jesus – give me peace. Amen
A Franciscan prayer
Lord, make us instruments of your peace,
where there is hatred let us sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is discord, union;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy. Amen
Prayer for wholeness
O God, giver of life, bearer of pain, maker of love,
You are able to accept in us what we cannot even acknowledge;
you are able to name in us what we cannot even bear to speak of;
you are able to hold in your memory what we have tried to forget;
you are able to hold out to us the glory that we cannot conceive of.
Reconcile us through your cross to all that we have rejected in ourselves,
that we may find no part of your creation to be alien or strange to us
and that we ourselves may be made whole.
Through Jesus Christ. Amen
A prayer for a married couple
Loving Father, we come before you in sorrow and uncertainty,
knowing that the secrets of our hearts are known to you,
and that your love never fails.
Forgive the wrongs and errors that have arisen in this marriage,
and grant that all that has been good shall not perish,
but bear fruit in ways that are now beyond our sight.
May the lessons of the past serve to create a better future for both of us. Amen
God give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed,
courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to know the difference. Amen
Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen