Disciple's Prayer
About this article
This prayer can be used with young people to help them reflect on their own call to be bearers of Christ's light.Scripture Reading: John 1:1-5
Presider:
God of love, you provide us with light: from the moon and stars at night and the sun by day. By night and by day, your light brings life and makes things grow. It keeps the earth's plants green, making them flower and bear fruit.
God, we are something like the green plants of this earth. They need certain things in order to grow and be healthy. They become unhealthy if deprived of light or water, if exposed to too much heat or too much cold, too few nutrients or too many toxins. Their blossoms fade. They drop their leaves. Without proper care they wither and die.
We too can wither and die. We risk becoming unhealthy when we deprive ourselves of what we need to grow, when we involve ourselves with things that make us self-centered, insecure, possessive, stubborn, narrow-minded, manipulative, and unloving.
Closing Blessing
Reader: May we be courageous and honest in discerning right paths.
All: Amen.
Reader: May we turn away from all that harms us or others.
All: Amen.
Reader: May the light of Christ burn brightly inside us, especially when there seems to be no light anywhere around us.
All: Amen.
Reader: May we trust God to care for our most hidden needs and to grant our heart's deepest desires.
All: Amen.
Acknowledgments
(This prayer is taken from Challenges to Christian Spirituality, a mini-course in the Horizons series, by Nancy Marrocco [Winona, MN: Saint Mary's Press, 1997], pages 51 and 64. Copyright © 1997 by Saint Mary's Press. Permission is granted for this prayer to be used for classroom or campus ministry purposes. This prayer may not be republished in any form without written permission from Saint Mary's Press. To order this book, contact Saint Mary's Press at 800-533-8095, or visit our online catalog at www.smp.org/catalog.cfm.)
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