WINGS OF HOPE

God Who makes bodies out of nothingness
and forms minds with Your breath,
Who makes beating hearts out of dust,
and souls out of intangible eternity,
You, Who threw a diamond-sparkling sky
across the heavens, and thought me into being:

How can I thank You?
How can I approach You?
How can I be worthy of You?
How can I ever deserve You?
How can I make my way to You?
How can I know You and give You my love?
How can I make up for my sins against you?

Lead me to the certain corridor
of Your own desires for me.

Open wide the windows of my soul that I may
breath in hope, and courage, and faith.

Steel my flimsy will and guide my earthly purpose only toward Your hopes for me.

Not my will, but Yours be done.

Give me the wisdom to discern
Your direction and desires for me.

Give me the flexibility to be pliant
to Your wishes in all things.

Give me the boldness to follow
You, however You call,
and wherever You may wish to lead me.

Let me be mine alone no more, but only Yours.

I do not go alone:

You have given me a stalwart Guardian Angel
who is ever at my side, defending me in every step I take, and every move I make.

You have provided me with Anthony of Padua,
a formidable patron saint and intercessor.

You have given me John, Your beloved disciple,
and Your own mother, Mary, Queen of Angels,
all emissaries to Your Sacred Heart.

Let me rise into their sainted company,
taking their outstretched hands and listening
to their holy wisdom and guiding advice.

Robe me, please, King Jesus,
in the shining garment of Your expectancy.
Light my path by the lanterns of Your specific hopes and purposes for me.

Guide me by the compass of Your golden grace.

Let me not tire nor look back like Lot's wife.
Let me never again choose sin over grace.

Let me not complain, backslide, or return
to the shabby vainglory, or the oily snares
of Satan.

Let Your companions together lead me onward
out of the soggy shallows of temptation,
out of the fetid marshes of sin, and up, up, on wings of high hope, onto the diamond path
to the glittering gates of heaven, where You wait with open arms and heart afire,
with divine eternal love to rescue me
and to receive me into Your loving embrace.

I will be tired, Lord, tried by temptations, burdened by the weight of my years
and my missteps.

But I will be cleansed by grace, washed
in the blood of the Lamb, refreshed and born once again free and sinless into Your glory for time eternal, forever and ever enfolded
in Your Divine, forgiving, unending love!

All this I pray to You in humility and hope, in trust and love,

Amen

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