(a prayer by The Servite Order)
O God, my Father, I praise You as the giver of my life. I thank You for all life, but especially human life. You have created me after Your own image and likeness. For this I thank You.
I thank You for so dignifying humanity by Your Son, Jesus, becoming human like me in all but sin. I thank You for teaching me how precious is every human life through the way Jesus lived, died, and restored life.
Let Mary, the Mother of Sorrows, model for me how to endure fractured expectations, unfulfilled hopes, and just being unable to ease so much of the suffering that surrounds me in this deeply troubled world.
I pray for the conceived who are not allowed to experience life. I pray for the living who have full life denied them by physical or mental limitations. I pray for those who have freedom taken from them by oppression, terrorism, war, poverty, or force.
Truly give me a deep appreciation for my life and the lives of those who are around me, the people I like and those I dislike. Bring me to happy old age knowing how gifted I have been by the life You have shared with me and let me use here on earth. Bring me finally to the life where there is no more pain, no more suffering, but just the peace and joy You intended for me from the beginning of Your creation.
I ask this through Jesus, born of Mary. Amen.
