Do you struggle to keep your mind and heart focused on God throughout the day? At least for me, it is very easy to focus entirely on work or the task at hand and entirely forget about God. This means I might work the entire day without giving God any recognition. To combat that tendency, I have found an ancient practice that is unfortunately neglected in the Church today.
What amazes me is the simplicity of this practice and how much it can affect your entire day. The practice is this: reciting short, sentence long prayers that are packed with meaning. By reciting these extremely short prayers, you are able to return your focus on God and remind yourself that everything goes back to Him.
To get you started, here are 20 powerful prayers that will punctuate your day with God’s presence.
1. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
2. Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in Thee.
3. Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on me.
4. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I give you my heart and my soul.
5. Divine Heart of Jesus, convert sinners, save the dying, deliver the holy souls from purgatory.
6. Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love.
7. Come, Holy Spirit!
8. My God, and my all!
9. Blessed be God.
10. My Jesus, mercy!
11. Jesus, my God, I love Thee above all things.
12. Most sweet Jesus, increase my faith, hope, and charity, and give me a humble and contrite heart.
13. We adore Thee, Christ and we bless Thee; because by thy holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.
14. Behold the Cross of the Lord, flee ye adversaries, the Lion of the tribe of Juda has conquered, the root of David. Alleluia.
15. Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, on fire with love of us, inflame our hearts with love of Thee.
16. Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto thine.
17. May the Heart of Jesus in the most Blessed Sacrament be praised, adored, and loved with grateful affection, at every moment, in all the Tabernacles of the world, even to the end of time. Amen.
18. Sweet Heart of my Jesus, Make me love Thee ever more and more!
19. Heart of Jesus burning with love of us, inflame our hearts with love of Thee.
20. O Heart of love, I place all my trust in Thee: for though I fear all things from my weakness, I hope all things from thy mercies.
I challenge you to pick at least one or two of these prayers that strikes your heart, write them down on a piece of paper, and recite them 10 times today.
You will be amazed at how this can affect your day.