My Thanksgiving Prayer

Two more days! Thanksgiving will be here in two days! Wow, it seems like Christmas was just yesterday, and yet here we are right around the corner once again. Time flies so quickly, if I blinked I might miss my years as a teenager. The Lord has transformed my life above and beyond what I could ever have imagined in the last year, and He isn't even close to being finished! If I saw myself a year ago I probably wouldn't have been able to recognize myself. Nevertheless, I still have far to go. This year I am most grateful for the change the Lord has made in my life. May I, through the power of his Spirit, live up to the image he has called me to bear. The image of God, the image of His Son. Everyday, may I be conformed into the image of his righteousness. I have far to go on the road to Sanctification, some days I feel as though I have not proceeded at all. The worst days, though, are those in which I seem to slide backwards, away from my goal, away from the image of my Savior.

My prayer this Thanksgiving, a prayer that I would ask you to make your own, is a prayer that was first uttered by St. Patrick of Ireland.

Today I shield myself with God's power to direct,

God's strength to uphold me.

God's good sense to guide me,

God's ear to listen for me.

God's speaking to speak for me,

God's hand to guard me.

God's path opening before me,

God's shield to protect me.

From the snares of demons,

The inducements of my own vices.

The proclivities of human nature,

And those who wish me evil.

I summon these powers to come

between me and every cruel and merciless power

that threatens my body and my soul.

Christ be my protection today

against violence,

against illness,

against drowning,

against mortal wounding,

so that I may come to my ultimate reward.

Christ be with me

Christ be before me,

Christ be behind me,

Christ be inside me,

Christ be beneath me,

Christ be above me,

Christ on my right hand,

Christ on my left hand,

Christ when I lie down,

Christ when I sit down,

Christ when I rise up,

Christ all around me.

Christ in the heart of everyone who beholds me;

Christ in every eye that sees me;

and Christ in every ear that hears me.