Let us pray together:
O God, O God, there is so much suffering in my life. So much pain, so much hurt, so much regret, so much sorrow, so much torment, so much anger, so much guilt, so much rejection, so much loneliness. I can’t go on like this. It’s too much for me.
The Word of God says that you are the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;
For sure I need comfort. I need comfort now.
And the Word of God says, Surely Jesus bore our griefs, and carried away our sorrows;
Dear Lord,
I need you to bear my pain and carry away my suffering. Your Word says, blessed is the one whose sins are forgiven This life of mine is not blessed. I need to be blessed. I need to have the blessed life. Please Lord, I know I have sinned, so please forgive me where I have sinned.
Forgive me, and I will be forgiven. Comfort me and I will be comforted. Relieve me and I will be relieved of all suffering and pain. Bless me and I will be blessed. I turn my life over to you. I repent of all my sins. And I receive your blessings according to your promises in the Bible.
And I receive an end to all my pain and suffering, In Jesus name, Amen.
godshealingstream.org
by Clare (KL,Malaysia)
Dear Lord,
I pray on behalf of AFK who has been unemployed for more than a year now. Everyday is a daily battle and struggle for him, boredom and idleness is testing his patients. Many times he lost hope and was on the brink of giving up, even trying to end his own fate. Please dear Lord, help him to go on one day at a time, help him never to give up hope, for hope is all we have.
Always shield AFK from his suffering and never ending pain since childhood, be his strength and give him unfailing strength to bear with it all. Make him a channel of your peace Lord, even if he is a non believer, show him your love Lord. I do not know how long I will be able to keep him sane and positive, I too need your help Lord to help AFK in return, I am burdened by my own responsibilities, bills and emotions, and trying to stay positive and not to loose my cool is sometimes too demanding.
Dear Lord, AFK recently went for an interview for managerial position which is suitable for his Masters qualification, this is the defining moment for your divine intervention Lord, please make sure AFK gets this position, since he is the only candidate that was interviewed according to his experience and qualification.I believe this is your master plan, your wish and your plan for him. I can feel it in my heart that he will be employed soon.
Thank you for hearing my prayer. Amen.
Return to 7 Daily Prayers to Get You Through The Week
www.praywithme.com
Three Steps to Turn Suffering into Prayer
by Katie Warner
Click here to download audio file.
Click here for a transcript of the video presentation.
Click here for the printable study guide for Three Steps to Turn Suffering Into Prayer.
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“Suffering is a great favor. Remember that everything soon comes to an end . . . and take courage. Think of how our gain is eternal.” –St. Teresa of Avila
Reflective Questions
- Remember the words of the Morning Offering throughout your day, and give to God those moments of strength and weakness, those moments of joys and sufferings, so that He can use them.
- Many saints asked that God would use their suffering for a particular reason; St. Bernadette asked that God would use her suffering for the conversion of sinners, for example. Maybe it might help to choose a particular cause you would like to pray for, and ask God to use what you give to Him that day, for your cause.
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St. Teresa of Avila wrote that suffering was one way that God can use as a means of trying to reach us, to speak to us, and bring us closer to Him. The next time you are suffering, ask yourself, “Where is God trying to lead me through this suffering?”
Morning Offering Prayer to the Sacred Heart
“O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You my prayers, works, joys and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, in reparation for my sins, for the intentions of all our associates, and in particular for the intentions of our Holy Father for this month.”
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More Resources on Suffering & Prayer
“Suffering: Not Why, but Where?”
“Doing Small Things to Witness to God: What We Can Learn from the Martyrs”
“Unanswered Prayers”
“Seeing the Face of Christ in the Sick & Suffering, and Praying for Them”
“Can I Suffer With This Person?”
“What to Say to Someone Who is Suffering”
“The Work of the Suffering”
“Your Tailor-Made Cross”
“For Friends in Crisis” (Grace Urbanski, Praying with Grace)
“A Pope’s Answer to A Problem of Pain” (Christopher Kaczor, Catholic Answers)
Katie (Peterson) Warner of CatholicKatie.com is a wife, stay-at-home mom, author and speaker who helps family men and women learn the practical strategies and resources they need to take small steps toward becoming leaders at living more spiritual and meaningful lives, together with their families. Katie is the author of Head & Heart: Becoming Spiritual Leaders for Your Family (Emmaus Road Publishing), a correspondent for the National Catholic Register, and a contributing writer for the IntegratedCatholicLife.org. She has presented in venues like the National Catholic Bible Conference, the Catholic Family Conference, numerous Legatus chapters, the Eucharistic Congress of Atlanta, the Augustine Institute’s acclaimed Symbolon and Opening the Word programs, and on EWTN radio and EWTN television. Katie is the part-time Manager of Communication and Evangelization for Catholics Come Home. Katie and her husband, Raymond, have two children, and her favorite ministry work is family life. You connect with Katie on Facebook, Twitter, and through her website at CatholicKatie.com.
Transcript:
One of the things I love about being Catholic is how deeply we believe in God’s
ability to bring good out of our suffering. As christians we believe that suffering has
meaning and that God does not let our sufferings go to waste. He allows us to share
in it’s redemptive value when we offer up our sufferings and unite our cross with
His cross for the building up of the body of Christ.
The way we take advantage of this “offering up” of the small and heavy crosses in
our lives is through prayer. Here are a few ides on how to turn your suffering into
prayer:
First, begin the day with The Morning Offering.
My family recites this prayer every day before my husband heads to work and we
begin our day. And it’s amazing how now that it is a habit I find myself referring
back to the words about suffering in this prayer as I encounter suffering in whatever
form it comes in throughout the day.
If you aren’t familiar with it, the prayer goes like this:
The Morning Offering
O Jesus,
through the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
I offer You my prayers, works,
joys and sufferings
of this day for all the intentions
of Your Sacred Heart,
in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
throughout the word,
in reparation for my sins,
for the intentions of all my relatives and friends,
and in particular
for the intentions of the Holy Father.
If you don’t have this prayer memorized, I recommend you print it out (again, it’s
called The Morning Offering) and start reciting it every morning. Really focusing
on offering all that you go through that day to God so He can use it for good.
Second, informally ask God throughout the day to use your sufferings as they occur
for good.
So, if you start your day with The Morning Offering it really helps to keep that
mentality of offering up suffering as a prayer throughout the day by continual
shorter informal prayers as you encounter those hiccups.
You could say something as simple as, “Lord, I offer up this frustration I’m feeling
for the consolation of my friend Jackie who has cancer”. Or, “I offer the annoyance
of this flu for the strengthening of my marriage”.
In addition to asking God to apply the merits of that suffering to an intention close
to your heart, you can also pray that He will use them as He or His mother sees fit
for the good of the Church. Your moment of frustration, your sickness, your pain:
all of that can have tangible benefit in the lives of others. Some of whom you may
never meet. All because you offered those sufferings to our Lord to use for a greater
purpose.
Third, follow St. Therese of Lisieux’s practice of using sacrifice beads.
Sacrifice beads can be made or purchased and are made up of a string of ten beads
with a crucifix at one end (reminding us to follow our call to take up our cross and
follow Christ) and a medal of St. Terese at the other end. That reminds us of the
importance of following her “little way” of spirituality in which she let no small
suffering go to waste.
Keep the beads in your pocket and when you mentally and prayerfully offer up
something to God, in union with Christ’s sufferings on the cross, slide one of the
beads towards the crucifix. This is a great way to have something physical
associated with this prayer practice. So you can see how those moments of suffering
you are experiencing are one-by-one being handed over to our Lord.
Since I love so much of what St. Teresa of Avila has written about prayer, I’ll
conclude with one of these thoughts from her writings on prayer and suffering she
said:
“One must not think that a person who is suffering is not praying. He is offering up
his sufferings to God and many a time he is praying much more truly than one who
goes away by himself and meditates his head off.”
So, take comfort in the fact that your suffering is never wasted and that it may be
one of the greatest forms of prayer that you have to offer to God.
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