Prayer for Enemies and Compassion

INTRO
Every week there will be a new prayer to be practiced. These prayers are just suggestions and you don't have to practice the current prayer. Feel free to experiment with any of the previous prayers. Prayer is just an opportunity to spend time with our creator and learn to live and love more like His son, Jesus. There is no one way to pray. All of us are created with different personalities and different ways of relating, not only to one another, but to God as well. If you find a practice that works for you stick with it. God draws each of us in, with different means. Thomas Merton spoke of prayer the best when he said, "Prayer is turning towards God, if you can't pray, just turn towards God."

We often pray for deliverance from those who anger us. We long to be released from those whom we think seek us harm. However, God calls us to compassion, Henri Nouwen said, “Compassion can never coexist with judgment because judgment creates the distance, the distinction, which prevents us from really being with the other.” This prayer is a prayer that leads to the heart of God by calling us to transformation through seeking for the “beloved” not only in ourselves but also in others.

Luke 6:37-28
"Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

This prayer for enemies was written by Bishop Nicholai Velimirovich (a Serbian Orthodox bishop who opposed the Nazis and was eventually sent to the Dachau concentration camp.) Take time with this prayer stop and spend time in areas you feel God calling you to stop and take notice of in your own life. This prayer can be very hard at times because of the change it calls us towards. Growth and transformation are never easy or painless; however, God promises the He will be with us always.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them. Enemies have driven me into Your embrace more than friends have. Friends have bound me to earth, enemies have loosed me from earth and have demolished all my aspirations in the world.

Enemies have made me a stranger in worldly realms and an extraneous inhabitant of the world. Just as a hunted animal finds safer shelter than an unhunted animal does, so have I, persecuted by enemies, found the safest sanctuary, having ensconced myself beneath Your tabernacle, where neither friends nor enemies can slay my soul. Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

They, rather than I, have confessed my sins before the world. They have punished me, whenever I have hesitated to punish myself They have tormented me, whenever I have tried to flee torments. They have scolded me, whenever I have flattered myself They have spat upon me, whenever I have filled myself with arrogance.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them. Whenever I have made myself wise, they have called me foolish. Whenever I have made myself mighty, they have mocked me as though I were a dwarf. Whenever I have wanted to lead people, they have shoved me into the background. Whenever I have rushed to enrich myself, they have prevented me with an iron hand. Whenever I thought that I would sleep peacefully, they have wakened me from sleep. Whenever I have tried to build a home for a long and tranquil life, they have demolished it and driven me out. Truly, enemies have cut me loose from the world and have stretched out my hands to the hem of Your garment.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them. Bless them and multiply them; multiply them and make them even more bitterly against me: so that my fleeing to You may have no return; so that all hope in men may be scattered like cobwebs; so that absolute serenity may begin to reign in my soul; so that my heart may become the grave of my two evil twins: arrogance and anger; so that I might amass all my treasure in heaven; ah, so that I may for once be freed from self-deception, which has entangled me in the dreadful web of illusory life.

Enemies have taught me to know what hardly anyone knows, that a person has no enemies in the world except himself. One hates his enemies only when he fails to realize that they are not enemies, but cruel friends. It is truly difficult for me to say who has done me more good and who has done me more evil in the world: friends or enemies. Therefore bless, O Lord, both my friends and my enemies. A slave curses enemies, for he does not understand. But a son blesses them, for he understands. For a son knows that his enemies cannot touch his life. Therefore he freely steps among them and prays to God for them. Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.