This prayer is drawn, with slight modifications, from “The Pilgrim,” a poem by the 18th-century hymn writer and poet Anne Steele.
My gracious God, you who are the guide of my life and guardian of my soul, brighten my glimmering hope and dispel the gloomy clouds of fear that hang so heavy with sadness over me. Let your reviving smile — fair dawn of glory! — cheer my fainting heart until all the sorrows, all the pains of time, appear as trifles in the blissful view of that eternal day when endless joys flow unceasingly from your throne. I pray this in the name of the Man of Sorrows, my Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
