Prayer to Heal the Brokenness
Gracious God, I come to you broken and alone. Feeling helpless and without comfort. I don’t know what is happening to me and I find my life out of control and so very painful. Please send light into this darkness. Please help me through this day – even just through this next hour. I am lost and I need your help to guide me.
nouwen-network.com
A Prayer for this One I Love
Oh Holy God, what is happening to this one I love?
Where I saw joy and gladness
now I only see deep sorrow and pain.
How can there be so much despair and
sadness in this one I love?
Take it away – take it away now.
If this illness has to be somewhere, give it to me.
I can’t stand watching this one I love
struggling so hard with life.
Have I failed? How can I fix this?
Can I love more can I do more?
Lord, don’t leave us alone in this awful place.
(Author Unknown) nouwen-network.com
Prayer for People Living with Mental Illness
Loving God, I pray for all whose brains have been hurt by disease, injury, stress, trauma, and other factors of human life in a hard world. I pray for all who love them and want to help. I pray for your comfort in their grief, hope amid loss, and the balm of community with people who understand.
- For people with mental illness–may they find hope in you and feel your longing for them.
- For parents of children with mental illness–may they know the limits of their power both to cause and to cure.
- For children of parents with mental illness–may they know you as loving parent and find places where they can grow up in safety, no matter how old they are.
- For friends of suffering people–may they resist the temptation to try to “fix” their friends and recognize the simple power of their loving presence.
- For spiritual leaders–may they deny both helplessness and overconfidence, courageously serving as first responders and faithful shepherds.
- For people who need treatment and don’t receive it–may they recognize their need, believe life can be better, and find people who can help.
- For those burdened by shame and stigma–may they walk into the light and find compassionate people.
Lord, I pray for light in the darkness. I pray that people with vulnerable minds will find hope and help among followers of Christ who will love them and point them toward what they need while letting them live with that need. I pray for acceptance and grace–the same kind of grace you offer so freely to all. I pray that many churches will embrace the opportunity for messy and sometimes thankless ministry among the marginalized, in the name of the one whose love knows no margins. Amen.
AmySimpsonOnline.com
A Celtic Prayer
From chaos and emptiness,
From loneliness and lifelessness,
Come, Creator, Come.
From darkness and shapelessness,
From the abyss and awfulness,
Come, Creator, Come.
From fearfulness and hopelessness,
From weakness and dreadfulness,
Come, Creator, Come.
~A Celtic Prayer – David Adam
Prayer for Those Suffering Mental Illness
Loving God, we pray today for those who are confronted by the sadness,
ambiguity and confusion of mental illness, and for those upon whom they
depend for attention and compassionate care. Look with mercy on all
whose afflictions bring them weakness, distress, confusion or isolation.
Provide for them homes of dignity and peace; give to them understanding
helpers and the willingness to accept help. We ask this in the name of
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
https://www.chausa.org/prayers/additional-resources/2017-month-of-prayer/prayer-for-those-suffering-mental-illness
©The Catholic Health Association of the United States
National Day of Prayer for Mental Illness Recovery and Understanding – 1st Tuesday of Mental Illness Awareness Week (first full week in October)
Prayer Of Confession
Leader: We confess that we are still uninformed about mental illness and how it impacts persons and their families.
Response: At times, because of our lack of knowledge and understanding we find ourselves separated from our sisters and brothers with mental illness, their families and ourselves.
Leader: There are lines drawn between us because we may define wholeness and normality with different words, but not a different spirit.
Response: Because of our lack of knowledge we live cut off from sources of strength and power that would help us be present to people with mental illness. This lack often makes us feel that we cannot act.
Leader: So many events, meetings and needs call to us, grabbing for our attention, that we find ourselves stretched to a fine, thin line.
Response: In the face of all this, we continue to seek knowledge and understanding of mental illness that will bring liberation and shalom to us and those we serve and unite us to action.
All: O God, our liberation and shalom, we seek the power of your Spirit, that we may live in fuller union with you, ourselves and our sisters and brothers with mental illness. Also grant that we may gain courage to love and understand each other. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer
“Loving Creator, we come to you on this National Day of Prayer for Mental Illness Recovery and Understanding because we know that you are a God of love and compassion. We come as people of all creeds and all nations seeking your presence, comfort and guidance. We come as consumers, family members, friends, co-workers and mental health professionals. We come this day because we believe that you, Divine One, love each one of us just as we are and you walk with us on our individual journeys through life. You see the ignorance and injustice that divides and separates persons struggling with mental illness and you weep with us.
Give us courage to face our challenges and open us today to the many ways you are already working in our midst. Help us to identify mental illness as the disease it is, that we might have courage and wisdom in the face of ignorance and stigma. Inspire us as we seek to overcome fear, acquire knowledge, and advocate for compassionate and enlightened treatment and services.
Lead us as we open our hearts and homes, our communities and job opportunities, our houses of worship and communities of faith. Enable us to find ways to be inclusive of persons living with mental illness in our everyday lives. Be with doctors, therapists, researchers, social workers, and all those in the helping professions as they seek to overcome ignorance and injustice with care and compassion.
Sometimes, Divine Spirit, we feel discouraged and hopeless in the face of so many challenges. Help us to see ourselves as you see us…persons of value and worth…persons of creativity and potential. May we come to understand the interconnectedness of mind, body and spirit in bringing about health and wholeness. And may we go forward into our communities with a renewed sense of vision, hope and possibility for the future. Amen.”
Reverend Susan Gregg-Schroeder
Candlelighting Service
We light the candle of Truth that God will help us dispel ignorance and misinformation about major depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, severe anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder. (Silent prayer)
We light the candle of Healing that troubled minds and hearts, broken lives and relationships might be healed. (Silent prayer)
We light the candle of Understanding that the darkness of stigma, labels, exclusion and marginalization might be dispelled for the sake of those touched by mental illness. (Silent prayer)
We light the candle of Hope for persons and families living with mental illness, for better treatment, for steadier recovery, for greater opportunity to work and serve. (Silent prayer)
We light the candle of Thankfulness for compassionate, dedicated caregivers and mental health professionals; for new discoveries in brain research and better medications. (Silent prayer)
We light the candle of Faith to dispel doubt and despair for those who have lost hope and are discouraged. (Silent prayer)
We light the candle of Steadfast Love to remind us of God’s love and faithfulness, and to remind us to share the light of love and service for those living with mental illness. (Silent prayer)
Other Options
After lighting the candles, participants can be invited to come forward and light a votive candle speaking the name of someone they wish to pray for aloud or in their heart. Other types of candles can be used and a song can be sung.
Another option is to have a fountain or bowl of water in the center of the candles. Participants can come forward and take a stone, colored marble or shell from the water and take it with them as a reminder of their personal prayer.