A Priest's Prayer on Sunday Night

From Straight from the Heart, a compilation of various prayers gathered and edited by Fr. Ladra:

Tonight, Lord, I am alone.
Little by little the sounds died down in the church.
The people went away and I came home, alone.

I passed by people who were returning home from a walk.
I went by the movie house that was disgorging its crowd.
I skirted cafe terraces where tired strollers were trying to prolong the pleasure of a Sunday holiday.
I bumped into youngsters on the sidewalk. Youngsters, Lord, other people's youngsters, who will never be my own.

Here I am Lord, a body made like others,
arms ready for work, a heart meant for love,
but I've given you all.
It's true you needed it.
I've given you all, but it's hard, Lord.
It's hard to give one's body; it would like to give itself to others.
It's hard to love everyone and to claim no one.
It's hard to shake a hand and not want to retain it.
It's hard to inspire affection, only to give it to you.
It's hard to be nothing to oneself in order to be everything to others.
It's hard to be like others, among others, and to be other.
It's hard always to give without trying to receive.
It's hard to seek out others and to be, oneself, unsought.
It's hard to suffer from the sins of others, and yet be obliged to hear and bear them.
It's hard to be told secrets, and be unable to share them.
It's hard to carry others and never even for a moment be carried.
It's hard to sustain the feeble and never be able to lean on one who is strong.
It's hard to be alone, alone before everyone, alone before the world, alone before suffering, death, sin.


Son, you are not alone, I am with you, I am you.
I needed another human instrument to continue my Incarnation and my redemption.
Out of all eternity, I chose you., I needed you.
I need your hands to continue to bless.
I need your lips to continue to speak.
I need your body to continue to suffer.
I need your heart to continue to love.
I need you to continue to love.
I need you to continue to save.
Stay with me, son.

Here I am Lord, here is my body, here is my heart, here is my soul.
Grant that I may be big enough to reach the world,
strong enough to embrace it without wanting to keep it.
Grant that I may be a meeting place, but a temporary one,
a road that does not end in itself because everything to be gathered there,
everything human leads toward you.

Lord, tonight, while it is all still and I feel sharply the string of solitude,
while your people devour my soul and I feel incapable of satisfying their yearning,
while the whole world presses on my shoulders with all its weight of misery and sin,
I repeat to you my "yes" - not with a burst of laughter,
but slowly, clearly, humbly, alone, Lord, before you,
in the peace of the evening.

(Michael Quoist)