Survivor Prayer

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

  "Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy"  John 16:22 NIV 

Guide us into a piety born of healthful surrender that completes but does not harm us, that fosters in us humility but does humiliate us, that releases in us a forgiving spirit neither enabling nor denying the work of evil in our lives or the lives of others. Shine Your light in our hearts so we are able to able to fear God with freedom and without fright, with awe but without terror. And, heal our wounds and the wounds of our broken world as the wounds of Christ have been healed, by grace through faith, as visible signs of renewed life.  For ourselves, for our fellow survivors of abuse of any kind, for those wounded through their empathy for our wounds and love for us, for those offering us care and seeking to heal wounds in our Church, and for those who have wounded us, we ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord.