Attributed to Pope Clement XI

One prayer that asks for everything a soul needs.

This is the prayer to reach for when you do not know what to pray. It moves through faith, hope, love, sorrow, and the whole shape of a life — work, suffering, death — asking for the right disposition in each. Many pray it once a week; some daily.

The Prayer

Lord, I believe in You: increase my faith.
I trust in You: strengthen my trust.
I love You: let me love You more and more.
I am sorry for my sins: deepen my sorrow.

I worship You as my first beginning,
I long for You as my last end,
I praise You as my constant helper,
and call on You as my loving protector.

Guide me by Your wisdom,
correct me with Your justice,
comfort me with Your mercy,
protect me with Your power.

I offer You, Lord, my thoughts: to be fixed on You;
my words: to have You for their theme;
my actions: to reflect my love for You;
my sufferings: to be endured for Your greater glory.

I want to do what You ask of me:
in the way You ask,
for as long as You ask,
because You ask it.

Lord, enlighten my understanding,
strengthen my will,
purify my heart,
and make me holy.

Help me to repent of my past sins
and to resist temptation in the future.
Help me to rise above my human weaknesses
and to grow stronger as a Christian.

Let me love You, my Lord and my God,
and see myself as I really am:
a pilgrim in this world,
a Christian called to respect and love
all whose lives I touch. Amen.

About This Prayer

Four lines in the middle carry the whole thing: to do what God asks, in the way He asks, for as long as He asks, because He asks it. Everything else in the prayer follows from those. It is worth praying slowly enough to notice that the last of the four is the only reason given.