Category: Time to Pray

  • Psalm 6

    1 Yahweh, don’t reprove me in your anger,
    don’t discipline me with your wrath.

    2 Be gracious to me, Yahweh, because I’m faint;
    heal me, Yahweh, because my bones shake in fearfulness.

    3 My entire being s hakes in great fearfulness,
    and you, Yahweh – how long?

    4 Turn back, Yahweh, pull me out,
    deliver me for the sake of your commitment!

    5 Because there’s no commemoration of you in death;
    in She’ol who confesses you?

    6 I’m weary of my groaning,
    I make my bed swim every night,
    I melt my mattress with my tears.

    7 My eye has wasted away through provocation,
    grown old because of all my adversaries.

    8 Depart from me, all you who devise trouble,
    because Yahweh has heard the sound of my crying.

    9 Yahweh has heard my prayer for grace;
    Yahweh receives my plea.

    10 All my enemies will be shamed and be very fearful;
    they will turn back and be shamed instantly.

    God, give me grace to accept with serenity
    the things that cannot be changed,
    Courage to change the things
    which should be changed,
    and the Wisdom to distinguish
    the one from the other.

    Living one day at a time,
    Enjoying one moment at a time,
    Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
    Taking, as Jesus did,
    This sinful world as it is,
    Not as I would have it,
    Trusting that You will make all things right,
    If I surrender to Your will,
    So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
    And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

    Amen.

  • Genesis 3 22-24

    And the LORD, god, said
    Look! The man became like one of us,
    – knowing good and evil.
    And now
    lest he will put out his hand
    and will take also from the Tree of Life
    and he will eat
    and he will live forever…

    And the Lord, god, expelled him
    from the garden of Eden.
    so that he might work the ground
    from which he was taken.

    And he drove out the man,
    and he caused to dwell
    on the east of the garden of Eden
    the cherubim
    and a flaming sword
    turning back and forth
    to guard the way of the tree of Life.

    Eternal Light, shine into our hearts,
    Eternal Goodness, deliver us from evil,
    Eternal Power, be our support,
    Eternal Wisdom, scatter the darkness of our ignorance,
    Eternal Pity, have mercy upon us;
    that with all our heart and mind
    and soul and strength we may seek thy face
    and be brought by thine infinite mercy
    to thy holy presence;
    through Jesus Christ our Lord.

    Alcuin (735-804)

  • Genesis 3 20-21

    And the man called his wife ‘Life’
    because she will be (was) mother of all living.
    And the Lord, god, made
    for Adam and for his wife
    tunics of leather
    and he clothed them.

    Lord, you have given me so much,
    I ask for one more thing –
    a grateful heart.

    George Herbert

  • Gen 3 17 -19

    And to Adam he said:
    Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
    and you have eaten from the tree
    which I commanded you,
    by saying
    Do not eat from it
    Cursed is the ground
    on account of you
    With hard work you will eat (from) it
    all the days of your life;
    And (the ground) will cause thorns and thistles
    to grow for you.
    And you will eat the vegetation of the field.
    By the sweat of your nose
    you will eat bread
    Until you return to the ground
    because from it you were taken
    because dust you are
    and to dust you will return.

    Be thou a bright flame before me,
    Be thou a guiding star above me
    Be thou a smooth path below me
    Be thou a kindly shepherd behind me
    Today – tonight -forever
    Amen.

    St Columba

  • Genesis 3 14-16

    And the LORD, god, said to the serpent:
    Because you have done this
    Cursed are you,
    more than all the livestock
    and the living creatures of the field
    On your belly you will move
    And dust you will eat all the days of your life.
    Enmity I will place
    between you and between the woman
    and between your seed and between her seed.
    He will crush you, that is your head,
    You will crush him, that is his heel.

    To the woman, he said,
    I will greatly increase your hard-work-in-child-bearing
    with hard work you will bear children.
    And your desire (will be) to your husband
    And he will rule you.

    O Love, O God who created me, in your love recreate me.
    O Love, who redeemed me,
    fill up in me whatever part of your love
    has fallen into neglect within me.
    O Love, O God, who first loved me,
    grant that with my whole heart,
    and with my whole soul,
    and with my whole strength,
    I may love you.

    Gertrude the Great

  • Genesis 3 8-13

    Schnorr von Carolsfeld The Birth of Shame coloured by Leonardo AI

    And they heard the sound of the LORD, god,
    walking back and forth in the garden in the ‘wind of the day’
    And the man and the woman hid from the face of the LORD, god,
    among the trees of the garden.


    And the LORD, god, called to the man
    saying to him
    ‘Where are you?’
    And he said
    ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden
    so I was fearful
    because I was naked.
    So I hid myself. ‘

    And he said:
    ‘Who told you that you were naked?
    Have you from the tree
    which I commanded you not to eat from
    eaten?’

    And the man said:
    ‘the woman
    whom you gave to be with/ to me –
    she gave to me
    from the tree
    and I ate.’

    And the Lord, god, said to the woman:
    ‘What is this that you have done?’

    And the woman said:
    The serpent deceived me
    so I ate.’

    Teach us, good Lord,
    to serve thee as thou deservest;
    to give and not to count the cost;
    to fight and not to heed the wounds;
    to toil and not to seek for rest;
    to labour and not to ask for any reward,
    save that of knowing that we do thy will,
    through Jesus Christ our Lord.
    Amen

    St Ignatius

  • Genesis 3 6-8

    And the woman saw that the tree (was) good for food
    and that it (was) a delight for the eyes
    and desirable for gaining in wisdom
    and she took from its fruit
    and she ate.
    And she also gave (it) to her man, with her,
    and he ate.

    Then the eyes of the two were opened
    and they knew that they were naked
    and they sewed ‘fig leafs’
    and they made for themselves coverings.

    Grant, Lord,
    that we may hold to you without parting,
    worship you without wearying,
    serve you without failing;
    faithfully seek you,
    happily find you,
    and forever possess you,
    the only God,blessed now and for ever.
    Amen

    St Anselm

  • Genesis 3 1- 5

    And the snake was more crafty than all the animals of the field
    which The Lord, god, had made.
    And he said to the woman,
    Is it so that god really said-
    “You (both) shall not eat from the trees of the garden?”
    And the woman said to the snake:
    ‘From the fruit of the trees of the garden, we may eat.
    And from the fruit of the tree,
    which is in the middle of the garden –
    god said “you shall not eat it,
    and you shall not touch it
    lest you die.”‘
    And the snake said to the woman
    ‘You shall not surely die,
    because God knows that on the day
    when you eat from it your eyes will be opened
    and you will become like gods
    knowing good and evil.’

    Thank you, dear Jesus,
    for all you have given me,
    for all you have taken away from me,
    for all you have left me.

    Thomas More (c.1478-1535)

  • Genesis 2 21-23

    And YHWH, god, dropped sleep on the human,
    and he slept
    and he took one of/from his ribs
    and he closed (the) flesh
    underneath it.

    And YHWH, god, built the rib
    which he took from the human,
    into a woman.
    And he brought her to the human.

    And the human said:
    ‘This one,
    this time,
    is a bone from my bones
    and flesh from my flesh.
    this one will be called “woman”
    because from the man she was taken.’

    Therefore
    a man will leave his father and his mother
    and stick with his woman /wife
    and become one flesh
    and the two – the man and the woman – were naked
    and they were not ashamed.

    Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
    Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
    Where there is injury, pardon;
    Where there is discord, union;
    Where there is doubt, faith;
    Where there is despair, hope;
    Where there is darkness, light;
    Where there is sadness, joy,
    For your mercy and for your truth’s sake. Amen

  • Genesis 2 18-20

    Adam naming the animals of the world, from the Peterborough Bestiary (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 53, f. 195v, 14th Century)

    And YWHH, god, said
    ‘It is not good for the human to be alone;
    I will make for him a helper – as opposite to him.’

    And YHWH, god, made from the ground,
    all the living things of the field
    and all the birds of the heavens.

    He brought (them) to the human
    to see what he would called
    and whatever the human called them
    – a living thing –
    that was it’s name.

    And the human called their names
    – for all the livestock
    and for the birds of the heavens
    and living things of the field
    and for Adam
    he did not find
    a helper
    – as opposite to him.

    O Lord Jesus Christ,
    stay beside me to defend me,
    within me to guide me,
    before me to lead me,
    and above me to bless me,
    that with you and in you,
    I may live, and move and have my being,
    for ever and ever.
    Amen.

    (unknown)