a prayer for trying to quit (erin jean warde)
I’m honored to share that my work was featured in Planning for Rites and Rituals 2022-23, from Church Publishing (the publishing group for the Episcopal Church).
inspiration & reflection
I’m honored to share that my work was featured in Planning for Rites and Rituals 2022-23, from Church Publishing (the publishing group for the Episcopal Church). It blesses me to have my sobriety work specifically featured in a resource book from my church. If you’re a liturgist, I certainly suggest getting this as you plan for the liturgical year to come, but I’m also going to share the prayer featured as my inspiration and reflection today. I wrote this many years ago on my blog and I am continually blessed by the people who choose to tell me what this prayer has meant to them. It may not serve you in this moment, but maybe one day it will, or possibly it could serve someone you know and love.
With love & care,
EJW
A Prayer for Trying to Quit Drinking (Or Anything Else)
by Erin Jean Warde
This is a short prayer for anyone who might find it helpful. If you notice nothing else, pay attention to this: God is known in these prayers as loving and gracious and named as the power that is always faithful to deliver us from our pain into abundant life.
Loving God, I arrive to you in a space of my heart that only you have known, that great space of trying, the hole where I harbor my utmost sense of failure. I ask for your deliverance from the pain I’m facing, the pain I have faced before, the pain I fear I will face again. My heart is willing; my flesh is weak. May you, who entered the world to know the trials of being in a body, be present to me, strengthening me in my weakness, securing me in my willingness, reminding me in my perceived failure that there is no failure in the love of Jesus Christ. Amen.
From the shame of another drink,
Good Lord, deliver me.From the regret of things I have said,
Good Lord, deliver me.From the anxiety of what I have done and cannot remember,
Good Lord, deliver me.For the ways I have mistreated those I love,
Good Lord, forgive me.For the urgencies I have neglected,
Good Lord, forgive me.For the opportunities for compassion I missed,
Good Lord, forgive me.
Of the ways I have treated my body,
Good Lord, heal me.Of the assaults on my mind,
Good Lord, heal me.Of the hopelessness I assume as a way of life,
Good Lord, heal me.Gracious God, You knit us into our lives, each breath a thread bound to an inseparable grace. In the thread of this day, fasten us to your hope, that we may, with awareness of your faithfulness to us, be delivered from our afflictions. Amen.
discerning sobriety course
My course — Discerning Sobriety — guides you as you reflect on the role of alcohol in your life, through 20 lessons and 20 spiritual practices. Discerning Sobriety is for the sober curious, anyone who wants to bring mindfulness into their relationship with alcohol, and people in recovery. You will receive one email every day for 40 days, leading you through a spiritual listening (discernment!) process, as you connect with mind, body, and soul.
pre-order my book
get my book — it comes out April 2023! 🤩