A Prayer for Freedom

For Freedom Deeper Than Personal Choice

Holy Spirit, Source of Love and Life, give us the grace of freedom.

We know that in you, we are free, and that your truth sets us free.

We can be free in many ways: free to make whatever choices we desire, but may we also be free to put others before ourselves. We can be free to speak our mind, but may we also free to be good listeners and responsible dialogue partners. We can be free to worship according to the dictates of our conscience, but may we also free to respect the faith and conscience of others.

We pray for the freedom from want, not only for our selves and our loved ones, but for all people. Likewise, we pray for the freedom from fear — which means we pray for the gift of hope, again not just for those we care for most, but truly for us all.

Most of all, we pray that our freedom, both as individuals and as a community, might also be an expression of your divine freedom — so that our wills may be one with yours, our desires one with yours, our love one with your love, and our lives truly lived in complete union with You.

This we ask with confidence and joy, in your loving and compassionate name.

Amen.

This prayer is adapted from a prayer I wrote for the Contemplatio Podcast produced by the Ignatius House Retreat Center in Atlanta, GA. If you’d like to subscribe to this podcast, click here: https://www.ignatiushouse.org/learn/the-weekly-prayer.