Lent, Day 2

Readings

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Psalm 1:1-2

Psalms 3, 4, and 6

Luke 9:22-25

Prayer

“Redeemer of mankind, lend a listening ear and turn a pitying glance, a glance of heavenly day to lighten the darkness of this benighted Heart of mine. God of unbounded mercy, send the Divine Spirit in Jesus’ name through the tender compassion manifested in His five bleeding wounds. Look favorably and mercifully upon this Heart, this forlorn Heart, in its state of worse than midnight darkness; let the light of the uplifted cross shed its halo of reconciliation, and break the grasp of the power of darkness and set my spirit free to act in obedience to the moving Holy Spirit. Break the power of my ghostly enemy, and the force of his combined influences.

    Remove from my Heart Pride, Lewdness, Gluttony and Intemperance, Stupidity and Avarice, Anger, Sloth, and Enmity of every kind, and renew in me grace, through Thy Spirit, in Jesus’ name and for His sake. Amen.”

~ John B. Smalls, “A Prayer for the Human Heart” (1898). Taken from Conversations with God: Two Centuries of Prayers by African Americans by James Melvin Washington, Ph.D.