PRAYERS FOR GRACE
AND GUIDANCE

THIS WEBPAGE IS ALSO AVAILABLE
AS A PODCAST HERE

These morning prayers for grace and guidance can help put you in a proper frame of mind to discern God’s will. They can also help you resist temptation and deal with life’s misfortunes.

The first of these prayers touches upon our need for humility and for equanimity in carrying our crosses.

Oh my God, You know my weakness and failings, and that without Your help I can accomplish nothing for the good of souls, my own and others’. Grant me, therefore, the help of Your grace. Grant it according to my particular needs this day. Enable me to see the task You will set before me in the daily routine of my life, and help me work hard at my appointed tasks. Teach me to bear patiently all the trials of suffering or failure that may come to me today. Amen.

Christ wants to give us the grace to offer Him up our troubles, just as he offered up His Passion to His Heavenly Father on the Cross. Indeed, our Lord told St. Paul that His grace was sufficient for him in his own struggles (2 Cor 12:9).

The better we bear our crosses as an offering for the expiation of sins, the more the road to Calvary seems less of a detour and more of a path on the road to heaven.

The second of these prayers asks God for His help to keep us free from sin and focused on doing His will.

O Lord God almighty, who has brought to us to the beginning of this day, defend us in the same by Your power; that we may not this day fall into any sin, but that all our thoughts, words, and works may be directed to the fulfillment of Your will. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.

And finally, this last of these prayers brings to mind the line from Psalm 95:7-8: “Today if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”

Merciful Lord, you are never weary of speaking to my poor heart. Grant me grace that, if today I hear your voice, my heart may not be hardened. Amen.

Our Lord expressed anguish on several occasions in the Gospels about people (such as those described in John 12:40, Matthew 13:15, and Mark 3:5) whose hearts were too hardened to follow His message of salvation
and Eternal Life through and with Him.

As Jesus Himself said most famously in the Gospels “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing” (emphasis added) (John 15:5). You weren’t meant to “go it alone”, to achieve your salvation without Divine assistance, in part through prayers like this one above.

In fact, our Church calls the idea that one can achieve salvation without God’s help Pelagianism, a heresy! Just remember Our Lord has given us His Church, prayer and the Sacraments to help us receive His graces. And we are all sinners in need of God’s mercy. Don’t be afraid to ask Him for it, especially in the sacrament of Penance! 

These prayers for grace and guidance remind us that we need to be open to God’s graces to receive them. Let them help you keep the doors of your heart open to His love, in good times and bad!