Prayers for Personal Use

I wonder how often you find yourself in situations where you want to say something but can’t find the right words? 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 a variety of situations when life may feel difficult; you can find further topical prayers on the Church of England's national prayer page. 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

Prayers in times of sickness:

Prayer for those who heal:

Dear God, your son, Jesus Christ, healed all kinds of sickness,
continue his work among us;
bless and heal the sick,
give to all doctors, surgeons, nurses, and all carers wisdom and skill, sympathy and patience.
Send down your blessing on all
who work to relieve suffering and pain, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Prayer for those I love:

O Heavenly Father,
I commit to you all those I love,
Keep them from harm in mind, body and soul,
free them from all anxious fears.
Help them to know that you are always near, and that we are all precious in your sight. Amen

Prayer before an operation:

O God, you understand my feelings at this moment, you know my fears and nervousness, you know the thoughts I cannot put into words.

I thank you for all the skill and wisdom of the surgeon, the anaesthetist, and the nursing staff.
Give them strength during all their work this day, and help me to place myself in their care.
Teach me to know that nothing can separate me from the love of Christ Jesus, and like my Saviour long ago said, ‘Father into your hands I commit myself… may your will be done’. Amen

A short set of prayers for the day:

Jesus said
‘Come to me, all that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest.’ Amen

Thank you Lord,

for watching over me during the hours of darkness
and for bringing me safely to the beginning of this new day.
I give myself, my fears and all this day holds to you.
Please help me to receive the strength I know you will give me. Amen

I will lift my eyes to the hills,

from where will come my help?
My help comes from the Lord,
who has made heaven and earth. Amen

A short set of prayers for the night:

The Lord is my help and my salvation,
the Lord is the stronghold of my life.
In you is the well of life,
and in your light shall we see light. Amen

Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who wake, or watch or weep this night,

and give your angels charge over those who are sleeping.
Tend your sick ones, give rest to your weary ones, sustain the dying, calm the suffering, and pity the distressed;
all for your love’s sake, Christ our Redeemer. Amen

I will lay me down in peace and take my rest.

Save us O Lord while waking,
and guard us while sleeping,
that awake we may watch with Christ. Amen

Jesus said "I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:20)

Prayers in times of bereavement and loss:

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.
My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
– John’s Gospel 14:1-3

Just as I am Lord Jesus Christ, from the loneliness of my grief I reach out to you.
I come just as I am with my fears and my worries, not putting a brave face on it and pretending any more.
Lord – it’s like a dream, a nightmare, and yet I know what has happened is real.
I’m confused, lonely and a bit frightened.
Lord Jesus – to you I pour out my grief, my tears, my pain, my confusion.
Please bear it with me and give me your peace. Amen

Hanging on
Do not be afraid, for I am with you.
Do not be afraid, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you. Amen

The Intensity of Grief:

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, silence the pianos and with muffled drum, bring out
the coffin, let the mourners come…
He was my North, my South, my East and West, my moon, my midnight, my talk, my song.
I thought that love would last for ever.
I was wrong. – Part of ‘Stop all the clocks’ by W.H. Auden

Moving on in trust:

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year ‘give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown’.
And he replied ‘go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God.
That shall be to you better than any light and safer than any known way!’
So I went forth and finding the Hand of God trod gladly into the night. – M. L. Haskins

O Lord, you have made us very small and we bring our years to an end like a tale that is told:

help us to know that beyond our brief day is the eternity of your love. Amen

I lift up my eyes to the mountains – where does my help come from? – Psalm 121:1

Prayers for when relationships are difficult:

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

Jesus said "Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." (John 14:27)

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.