Evening Prayers

In my program of recovery I seek to build a connection between myself and a power greater than myself. To feel the Divine and to follow the path laid out for me in this life. This includes regular prayer and meditation, morning and night and throughout the day. This is my evening prayer, said on my knees (with the help of my meditation cushion) before my "altar" to Kuan Yin, The Buddha and Thich Nhat Hanh. It is an amalgam of Christian, Buddhist, AA and original prayers put together in a way that makes sense to me.


Goddess, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change
the courage to change the things I can and
the wisdom to know the difference.

Goddess, I offer myself to you, to build with and to do with as you will.
Release me from the bondage of self, that I may better do you will.
Take from me my difficulties that victory over them may bear witness
to those I would help of your beauty, your love and your way of life.

Goddess, I am now ready that you should have all of me, good and bad.
Take from me every single defect of character that stands in the way of my usefulness
and grant me courage as I go out from her to do your will.

Lord make me an instrument of your peace, where there is hatred let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith, where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.

Divine Master grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Teacher, I take refuge in the Three Jewels, the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.
I entrust myself to the Earth and the Earth entrust herself to me.
I entrust myself to the Buddha and the Buddha entrusts herself to me.

Goddess, I offer (name of someone I care for and worry about) to you to build with and to do with as you will, to care for as I cannot.

Goddess, I pray for (name of someone I find difficult), that they may find peace, prosperity and happiness.

Thank you for today, for the love that surrounds me, the roof over my head and the food in my belly. Watch over all those I love and all those I've never met.

Your will, not mine, be done.

(while kowtowing)
I have arrived, I am home, my destination is in each step.

Goddess take from me my obsession for alcohol, pills, nicotine, and sex,
that stand in the way of my usefulness and degrade this body that you
have so lovingly given me.

Help me to carry your message with honesty, loving-kindness and compassion.

May I do your will always.


J.