A Penitent Prayer

I recently read and reviewed The Duty of Delight (the Diaries of Dorothy Day).  At the end of the book, this prayer was included.  It had been found on a card inserted in her last journal.  It’s the prayer composed to be used during Lent, and it certainly speaks to me — the things I need to remove from my life, and the things I need to include.  Maybe it will speak to you as well.

“O Lord and master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth,  faintheartedness, lust of power and idle talk.  But give to thy servant rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love.  Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own errors and not to judge my brother, for Thou art blessed from all ages to ages.

St. Ephraim the Syrian’s Prayer of Penance