A Prayer to Know the Holy Spirit’s Presence
A Prayer to Know the Holy Spirit’s Presence
By Pastor John Dawson
I grew up in a tradition that did not use prayer books. Prayer is a personal communication between the believer’s heart and God. Use of written forms to pray have been thought of as formal, rote, and impersonal, so prayer books were looked on with some suspicion. And yet, as I grew in the faith, I have appreciated praying with others. I hear their heart’s expression to God and find it mirroring my own. I am not just listening to them pray but praying with them. I have been struck at how well they expressed to the Almighty the very thing that my heart desired to say. As I have read prayers of saints (some long since with the Lord), I have felt the same. And so, I have come to appreciate books of prayer.
One such book, given to me by a dear saint, is A Diary of Private Prayer by John Baillie. Baillie was a Presbyterian minister from Scotland from the last century. It has been updated for this century by Susanna Wright, whose editing make the prayers even more accessible for today. I like to pray such prayers out loud, and slowly, so they reach my heart and not just my mind. In that way I can pray them from my heart to the Lord. May this prayer be useful to you.
O Holy Spirit, visit my soul and stay within me all day. Inspire all my thoughts. Pervade all my imaginations. Suggest all my decisions. Make your home in the most secret place of my will and inspire all my actions. Be with me in my silence and in my speech, in my hurry and in my leisure, in company and in solitude, in the freshness of the morning and in the weariness of the evening; and give me grace at all times to rejoice in the comforting mystery of your companionship.
My heart an altar, and thy love the flame.
O Spirit unseen, be with me today wherever I go, but also stay with me when I am at home and among my family. Do not let me fail to show those nearest me the sympathy and consideration that you graciously helped me to show to other people. Do not let me refuse to show those closest to me the courtesy and kindness which I would show to strangers. Let charity begin at home today.
Do not leave me, gracious Presence, while I am absorbing information, through reading books or through the media—newspapers, radio, television, film, and the Internet. Guide me to choose the right books, papers, and programs, and having chosen them, to use all the information they offer in the right way. When I study, grant that all the knowledge I gain may lead me nearer to you. When I read, watch, or listen for recreation, grant that what I read, see, and hear may not lead me away from you. Let all the knowledge I absorb refresh my mind in a way that makes me more eagerly seek whatever is pure and fair and true.
Give me a special sense of your nearness to me, O God, in all the times I devote to private prayer, to sharing in public worship, or to receiving the Blessed Sacrament; through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.
May you always be aware of the Holy Spirit’s presence in your heart,
Pastor John