PRAYERS FOR COMMITTING OUR WORK TO GOD AND FOR LIVING OUT OUR CHRISTIANITY IN ORDINARY LIFE

Oswald of Northumbria (605-42)

From Celtic Daily Prayer, Book One,p278 (the prayer resource from The Northumbria Community.)

This day is Your gift to me;
I take it, Lord, from Your hand
and thank You for the wonder of it.

God be with me in this Your day,
every day and every way,
with me and for me in this Your day;
and the love and affection of heaven be toward me.

All that I am, Lord,
I place into Your hands.
All that I do, Lord,
I place into Your hands.

Everything I work for
I place into Your hands.
Everything I hope for
I place into Your hands.

The troubles that weary me
I place into Your hands.
The thoughts that disturb me
I place into Your hands.

Each day that I pray for.
I place into Your hands.
Each that I care for
I place into Your hands.

I place into Your hands, Lord,
the choices that I face.
Guard me from choosing
the way perilous
of which the end is heart-pain
and the secret tear.

Rich in counsel,
show us the way
that is plain and safe.

May I feel Your presence at the heart of my desire,
and so know it for Your desire for me.
Thus shall I prosper,
thus see that my purpose is from You,
thus have power to do the good which endures.

Show me what blessing it is that I have work to do.
And sometimes, and most of all
when the day is overcast and my courage faints,
let me hear Your voice, saying,
'You are my beloved one in whom I am well pleased.'

Stand at the crossroads and look,
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is,
and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.

He has shown you, O man, what is right;
and what does the Lord require of you,
but to do justly, and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God?

Keep me close to You, Lord.
Keep me close to You.
I lift my hands to You, Lord, I lift them up to You.

Hands, Lord, Your gift to us,
we stretch them up to You.
Always You hold them.

Help me to find my happiness in my acceptance
of what is Your purpose for me:
in friendly eyes, in work well done,
in quietness born of trust,
and, most of all, in the awareness of Your presence in my spirit.

(Pause for reflection before resuming your activity)