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The prayers that follow below are favourites that come from the Christian tradition, or from recent history – but the most important prayer I ever said was made up in a crisis of desperation. It was very personal, and therefore not necessarily of much use to anyone else. You’ll find it on the post The prayer that changed everything for me.

This one helps me to write:

Apache Prayer to the
Great Spirit

O Holy Spirit, I hear your voice in the wind and rain
that breathes life into all the world.
Hear me, Oh hear me, for I am weak and sinful,
And I need your wisdom and strength,
That you have hidden under every leaf and stone.
O Loving Father, let me always walk with beauty,
And let my eyes behold your kingdom here on earth,
And make my ears sharp,
So that I will hear your voice
And know the truth you have told your people.
And let my hands always respect
The things that you have made.
I seek your wisdom and strength
Not to be greater than my brother or sister,
But to fight my greatest enemy – myself.

Dear Father, when my life here on earth is over,
And as my shadow leaves the sunset,
Let my soul stand straight before your throne,
Without sin and without shame.

(As transcribed by Gerry Morrison, Derry Cursillo, 7/1/1998)

Twenty-Seven Words – The Fatima Prayer

(Just as you can whistle a tune and think at the same time, so you can memorise a short prayer and make it an ever-present part of your way-of-thinking. ‘The fires of Hell’ for me are simply ultimate and catastrophic embarrassment and shame after irrecoverable foul-up.

I don’t want to think that Our Father in his mercy is incapable of saving everyone from that, so this prayer is always appropriate – and, who knows, it could even be I myself who is most in need of Jesus’s mercy.

I was taught this discipline by a run-in with potentially terminal bladder cancer in Belfast City Hospital in May 2003. I found it then and thereafter to be the very best cure for insomnia.)

Oh My Jesus, forgive us our sins. Save us from the fires of Hell. Lead all souls to heaven – especially those most in need of thy mercy.

Patricia and I had a particular reason for wanting to include the parable of the Prodigal Son in our prayers in 2011. We say the following decades on Thursdays.

The Teaching Mysteries of the Rosary

The Beatitudes
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
The Parable of the Prodigal Son
The Rescue of the Woman in the Temple
The Washing of the Feet of the Apostles

This one expresses the solidarity of the Trinity with all who suffer as Jesus did.

Found in Ravensbruck Concentration Camp, Germany, 1945

O Lord, remember not only the men and women of goodwill, but also those of ill will. But do not remember all the suffering they have inflicted upon us. Remember the fruits we bought, thanks to this suffering: our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, the courage, the generosity, the greatness of heart which has grown out of this; and, when they come to judgement, let all the fruits that we have borne be their forgiveness. Amen.