Prayers of Hope and Perseverance, I

  As mentioned previously, I really love the book “Prayers by the Lake” by St. Nikolai Velimirovich.  His beautiful prayers have inspired me to write a series of prayers.  Of course, my prayers cannot compare to his, but I hope that God can use my prayers to reach out to and to minister to other people. I have decided to call me prayers, “Prayers of Perseverance and Hope”.  So, from time to time I hope to add to my prayers and share them with you, my faithful readers.                                

    Prayers of Perseverance and Hope

I.

Lord, sometimes the weight of this world is too heavy for me to bear.  I am drowning and through struggle come up for air only to find that the air that awaits me is polluted and unable to sustain life.

Lord, loneliness has become a prostitute to me. She has wrapped her arms around me and I embrace her finding comfort in my isolation while rejecting the loving arms that reach out to comfort me only to find death and an emptiness greater than any black hole  can contain.

Many times I live from addiction to addiction, my minutes and my hours being measured by when I can get my next fix.  Sometimes my greatest joys arise from the anticipation of being able to consume that which fetters me. It seems what I am living for causes death to the body and to the soul.

But My God, the true lover of my soul, teach me to embrace life, not to hide from it or to dull its struggles or miseries.  Help me to see that tribulations produce perseverance, and perseverance character, and character hope.

Help me to see that the Kingdom of Heaven is not some far off place that I can only enter when I perish from this life, but rather open my eyes up to the fact that the Kingdom of Heaven is here and now.  Show me that only through trials and tribulations can I partake of this Kingdom because through them I am humbled and can see You for who you really are.