We love the ministry of Every Moment Holy! Save this prayer for the next time you are battling restlessness!
“O Christ Who Is My Rest,
This tension of body,
and racing of mind,
and clamoring of heart
afford me no peace in this night.
Unable to sleep I would yet
make use of my restlessness, O Lord.
Amidst doubt, anxiety, uncertainty,
I would learn to practice a more constant
awareness of your presence, directing
heart and thought and petition you.
Lay your hand upon my brow, O Lord,
and bid me calm. I cannot know every
reason why sleep so evades me, and yet
you have made me yours and in
that knowledge I would know comfort
as a child cradled in a mother’s arms,
who sleeping or walking cares not
for which momentary state, but only for
that sweet, unspoken communion of
knowing they are held in the soothing strength
of a great love that is their precious nurture
and their perfect peace.
So even in haggard sleeplessness,
I would yet recognize my utter dependence
upon you, remembering that you are with me
whether I sleep or not.
I do pray that sleep will come.
I pray that a blessed calm will descend.
I pay that peace will rest upon me now,
that my brow will soon smooth in slumber.
But even if it will not – even if mind or body
refuse their rest – still let my soul take its repose
in the enfolding comfort of your presence,
my head reclined against your breast, hearing
the deep music of your heartbeat.
Waking or sleeping, O Lord,
be this night my rest,
and on the morrow, my strength.
Amen.”
– An excerpt from Every Moment Holy
