O God, who have prepared fitting helps for us in our weakness, grant, we pray, that we may receive their healing effects with joy and reflect them in a holy way of life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
May we reach out with joy to grasp your hand. We keep acknowledging that God is the source of our life. We realize that we have been seeking other sources of life. We recognize our weakness and turn to God for help. Though our hearts are being opened up to their depths, though we cry out to God for help, we are not discouraged. The Lord is near to broken hearts. When the just cry out, the Lord hears them, and from all their distress he rescues them. The Lord is close to the broken hearted; and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
Loving God of forgiveness, I come before you humbled and sad in the face of my own repeated failings. I hold out my hands as a petitioner would, asking for mercy. It is then that I feel you reach out and take my hand in your loving grasp. Thank you for the love you pour out on me so lavishly. Help me to follow more closely in the path you have set for me, the path of your Son.