Favored Prayers

An affirmation arose in my heart during my yoga class on Thursday. It has merged with a prayer and has now become a mantra - repeated in the depths of my meditation...

While I will not record it here, this simple mantra bears similarity with several prayers that have been my favorites, at various junctures of my life. The first one, is one I have loved since I was in my teens, and it has found its way back into the cave of my heart once more - and has been whispered fervently for several weeks...

The second was a favorite in my twenties, while I worked on my M.A. at St. Louis University, a Jesuit institution, and moonlighted as a liturgical musician. I often played and prayed a musical rendition of this prayer...

The third comes from a beloved mystic - who was beatified on my 50th birthday, which I celebrated in Paris. I began that Sunday morning by exploring Notre Dame during Mass, never feeling as much energy in a church as I did in that one. Significantly, my 50th fell on a Sunday, the very day of the week I was born...

And the last verse, comes from a disciple of Yogananda, and is actually the end of my mantra...

Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

Prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola

Take, O Lord, and receive my entire liberty,
my memory, my understanding and my whole will.
All that I am and all that I possess
You have given me: I surrender it
all to You to be disposed of according to Your will.
Give me only Your love and Your grace;
with these I will be rich enough,
and will desire nothing more.

Prayer of Abandonment by Charles de Foucauld
Father,
I abandon myself into your hands;
do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you:
I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let only your will be done in me,
and in all your creatures.
I wish no more than this, O Lord.

Into your hands I commend my soul;
I offer it to you
with all the love of my heart,
for I love you, Lord,
and so need to give myself,
to surrender myself into your hands,
without reserve,
and with boundless confidence,
for you are my Father.


"For God alone suffices..."
Sri Gyananmata