Prayers - Renewal

RENEWAL

God, enthroned in crystalline perfection
beyond a million galaxies of stars,
while waiting still within my heart
to know my every prayer and desire,
please wash away and hide my faults
and failures from Your sight,
my Dear Lord of all perfection.

Look past my insensitivity and ingratitude,
my selfishness and arrogance and sloth.

Dear Christ, fallen bloody in Calvary's dust
I fall now before You upon on my knees,
head bowed in the wretchedness of my sins.

No, no, let me prostrate myself before You,
in the grime of my evil, unworthy, inattentive, distracted, enthralled
with a passing tinsel reality,
bewitched with vanities and mocking mirrors,
in love with a devious and passing
traitor-world when You, You!
The God of Light, All Perfection! stand ready to be my Love and my Being and My All
if I but reach up, grasp Your hand, and ask.

Awaken my sleeping conscience.
Arouse my lethargic spirit to holy ecstasy.
Invigorate me! Revitalize me!
Call me to Your glory and ravage me
with You graces! Drench me once more
in the purifying waters of forgiveness
and the baptismal blessing of a Child of God.

Hear the Confession of all the sins
of all my years, the negligence
of all my distractions, the errant dark journeys, fruitless pastimes,
and wandering, wasted evil missteps
of my life.

Absolve me of all, my saving Jesus.
Wash me pure again in the burning blood
of the Lamb!

Stoke in me the fires of devotion
and reopen in me the arsenal of prayers.
Give me again the Presence of Your Promise,
and Communion with You in the Holy Eucharist.

Focus me laser-like now upon all that matters most and make me oblivious to the trivia
and detritus, the meaningless distractions
and deviations, the missteps of a sodden, sinful world.

Raise me up, Oh, God, raise me up!
Hold me tight against the gaudy distractions
of the passing show!
Guard me round with angels of light.
Bind me with bands of silver grace.
Surround me with barriers of purity.
Clothe me in the light of shining grace
and give me a mighty shield of perseverance.

Blind me to all but the vision of your glory.
Lead me, lead me, lead me always forward
toward Your Divine Presence that I may see all things in true perspective.

Let me lay down my heart and soul
upon the altar of Your loving Sacred Heart,
and disavow all my tainted foibles,
my futile faults and follies.

I cannot know You totally in a moment
or even in a lifetime, but I can advance closer and closer and closer
as I pursue You daily and hourly
and instantly in deepest prayer
and unlimited trust,
in constant, confident hope and courage,
in unrestrained, rash, and ardent love.