Pause

Come, Holy Spirit!
Come, fill our minds with your vision.
Come, fill our souls with your passionate fire.
Come, fill our mouths with words from your tongue.
Come, fill our hearts with your unconditional love.
Come, Holy Spirit!

Listen

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

Romans 8:26-27

Think

Especially in times of illness and grief, we simply do not know how to pray or what to pray for. The weight of major life changes, depression, anxiety, and grief can render us weak physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Yet there is great freedom in the reality that even in our weakest moments the Spirit is already there to help us. Right in the midst of the sighs too deep for words comes the comforting breath of the Spirit.

Often when I am accompanying families at the hospital through their weak moments, I turn to hymns and spirituals for comfort and strength. Recently, a weary mother and I sang Thomas Dorsey’s “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” together while we waited for her child’s test results, as nothing else seemed appropriate to say in that space.

Thanks be to God for the Spirit who intercedes for us, even in our weakest moments.

Ashley-Anne Masters

Pray

God of words I do not yet know how to speak, send your Spirit to intercede on my behalf, that my words might be your words. I pray in the name of the Word. Amen

Go

Go, Holy Spirit!
Go blow away that which is destructive to ourselves and others.
Go resuscitate and breathe life into those in distress.
Go before us, leading us in the way of truth and hope.
Go, in spite of our attempts to rein you in and keep you confined.
Go, Holy Spirit!